


One mid-twenties dating crisis

by greylovestae



Category: GOT7, SHINee, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Break Up, Education, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Feelings Realization, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Heartbreak, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Philosophy, Relationship Advice, Roommates, Slow Burn, Teaching, Texting, like learning how to make fire kind of slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2020-03-20 13:34:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18993658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greylovestae/pseuds/greylovestae
Summary: Kim Seokjin is tired of his monotonous life. For the past few years, he’s devoted his time to work and he has left his personal life aside.Encouraged by his roommates, one night he decides to try one of those lame dating apps and his monotonous life becomes a mess.Basically, Kim Seokjin trying dating apps for the first time and all the mess that comes with that.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time posting a long, chaptered story on ao3. I really hope you like it! I'll try my best to make it enjoyable.
> 
>  
> 
> Some songs to set the mood: [1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjpE_wFL5A), [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXBu09fwe3I), [3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c9vKWqiy8k) and [4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUjEJwfa8wk).

«I'm so tired of love songs, tired of love songs  
Tired of love songs, tired of love.  
Just wanna go home, wanna go home  
Wanna go home, whoa»

_i'm so tired... - Lauv & Troye Sivan_

 

 

The class was almost silent for a few minutes. The song had stopped playing and the students were focused on their worksheets, trying to fill in the gaps with the proper words or revising what they had already written.

“Are you finished or do you need a few more minutes?” Seokjin got up from his chair and looked at the group of teenagers he had right in front of him.

It was last period and the kids looked pretty tired. Seokjin was not to blame them. He hated last period as much as them, first as a student and now as a teacher. Luckily, today’s class was pretty dynamic, which made time go by faster.

“One minute, teacher,” asked one of the students in the first row. She was one of the brightest in class and also one of the few that really put an effort into reviewing the already written contents.

“Okay, Jisu. But quick, huh? We need to start with the next activity or we won’t have time for everything I had planned for today,” a soft smile brightened up his face a little when he spoke.

Some students nodded in agreement. Jin could see how fast their eyes were going, reviewing the sheet for the zillionth time.

A minute went by really quickly.

“Time’s over, kids. Write down your names on the sheets and pass them to me. I’ll give you the corrections next week.”

The sound of chairs moving, and paper being ruffled filled the classroom before he could even finish.

“Perfect, thank you,” Jin smiled again, taking the papers from Jun, another student from the first row.

He then fit everything into a folder and moved around, getting right in front of the desk so he could lean on it a little.

“Can someone tell me what was the song we just heard about? Anyone?” Jin looked at the whole group and saw a few raised hands. He usually went for the first student he saw, but today he decided to ask Min first. She rarely spoke in class, so he should better make the most of the situation.

“The song is about… About heartbreak, teacher,” she was not really confident, so her voice was hesitant.

“Very good, Min. Good. Why do you think so? Can you give us a little explanation?” he placed both hands on the table, on his sides, while speaking.

The whole class was silent too, which was something rare. Keeping a group of teenagers silent in high school was hard as hell. He knew it.

“I… I think… The song says something about…,” she stopped for a second while trying to remember the lyrics. “The song says something about ‘Going back to our song’, so… The pair… I mean, couple. The couple broke up and now this person is remembering the… Teacher, how do you say the person you’re in love with in English?” Min’s cheeks were bright red because she was not used to being the center of attention.

“Can someone help her?” Jisu rose her hand again and Jin smiled. “ Jisu?”

“It’s partner, Minnie. Or lover,” she looked in Min’s direction and smiled. The other girl smiled too.

“Very good, girls. And yes, Min, you’re right. This song is about a break up. Lauv himself, one of the writers and singers, said that he was thinking of that period in which you’re still caught on someone. Are you following?” Jin had seen some confused faces among the class, so he decided to stop to see if they had questions.

No one said anything, so he decided to continue.

“So, the period in which you’re still caught on someone. But that’s only one of the stages of love, right?” the students nodded again. They were incredibly interested that day. “Why do you think I decided to make you listen to this song today? Any thoughts?” his eyes landed on a student sitting in the third row. “Hajoon?”

The boy stopped what he was doing the moment the teacher said his name out loud and tried to think about the last thing he heard. Yes, he hadn’t been paying attention.

“I…,” he hesitated a little. Thankfully, one of his classmates repeated the question for him before Jin said anything. “Because we’re starting a new unit today?”

He was not really sure about his words and Jin knew. He usually did this, calling someone’s attention when they were doing something non-class related.

“That’s right, Hajoon. Today we’re starting a new unit called ‘Love Hurts’ and we’ll be talking about love, heartbreak and so on,” he got up and went to the whiteboard. He grabbed a pen and started writing words on it. “We have already said a few words from the vocabulary of the unit. Can you say a few more out loud?”

“Love,” added Hajoon.

“Hate,” Woosung, the boy who was sitting next to him, replied.

“Couples,” Jisu had her hand raised again, but spoke out loud when she heard everyone else doing the same.

“Marriage,” Min raised her voice again.

“Very good, kids! I’m impressed. You know a lot about this topic, huh?” he smiled, his eyes widening as his lips curled up. “Can you remember anything else? Anyone?”

“Dating.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update 20/10/19
> 
> Hello everyone! 
> 
> First of all I wanna thank you for reading this. It's the first time I'm writing a long story on my own and I'm kinda nervous. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Now, let's get into detail.
> 
> I started writing this story in early February, but a lot of things happened on the way and I didn't get to post it until Summer. Now that it's October, I can't ensure a regular schedule because I'm a teacher myself and I have very little free time. I'll try to post once every month from now on, but please forgive me if I can't keep up with that. Being an adult sucks.
> 
> If you want to know when I'm gonna be able to post, you can follow me on my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/greylovestae) account.
> 
> Hope you have a nice time reading the rest of the story! A lot of things are gonna happen and I can't wate to show you everything.
> 
> Have a nice day.


	2. Monotony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Okay, okay. I was just saying—I’m a single pringle just like you, you know,” Taehyung crossed arms on the chest. “But dating is fun.”
> 
> “... and Finder dates are the funniest. We all know. You say that every damn day, Tae,” Jin started pouring tea into the teacups. “I don’t think a dating app can help me in any way.”
> 
> Taehyung rolled his eyes and shook his head.
> 
> “I think you should try it, hyung. I’m sure it’s fun,” Jimin left his phone face down on the coffee table while speaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> First of all, thank you for stopping by! 
> 
> Before you start reading, I just wanna point out a few things:
> 
> a) The characters' ages:  
> \- Kim Seokjin: 28  
> \- Min Yoongi: 27  
> \- Jung Hoseok: 27  
> \- Kim Namjoon: 26  
> \- Park Jimin: 25  
> \- Kim Taehyung: 25  
> \- Jeon Jungkook: 23
> 
> \- Mark Tuan: 27  
> \- Jackson Wang: 26  
> \- Lee Taemin: 27
> 
> b) Setting. The story is set in South Korea, but it's not in Seoul. I didn't want to put a real name to it, so I'm just gonna give you some general details about the city for you to consider. It's a coastal area, very touristy and with very high rents. People don't wanna live there because it's expensive, but younger teachers usually stay in the city for a few years to gain experience as there are lots of job offers for them. It can be a very busy area, specially during the Summer months, but once the Winter comes it becomes a completely different place because most bars, clubs and restaurants close.
> 
> c) Some of the things in this story are based off personal experience. I'm not saying this for you to start checking everything twice, it's just a detail. 
> 
> d) Mark, Jackson and Taemin will have an important role in the story, just like OT7.
> 
> f) Even though Namjin are the main couple, the other characters will gain importance as the story unfolds. 
> 
> Aaaand I think that's all for now. Meanwhile, you can listen to this [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjpE_wFL5A). It was the one that inspired this mess. Have fun! (Edit: I can't believe that Taehyung played this song in his live. when I saw it I wanted to CRY)

2\. Monotony  
The main door to the apartment opened and Seokjin got inside. He got rid of his shoes, leaving them on the shoe rack before starting to take off the jacket too.

Jimin and Taehyung were not home yet. Their shoes were not there, so he guessed they got stuck with work, as usual.

He sighed, then walked to his room. He left his backpack on the desk and went to the kitchen to put the kettle on. At this point it was almost a ritual of theirs—the first one who got home after work prepared a hot, relaxing tea and they drank it together in front of the TV.

He was preparing the herbs when the main door opened again and Jimin’s giggles filled the apartment.

“I’m telling you, one moment it was there, next thing I knew, little Moonie was eating the play dough!” Taehyung explained, jokingly.

“But you had already told them it was not edible,” Jimin was still laughing while speaking. “These kids…,” he laughed again but stopped when he saw Jin’s shoes. “Oh, Jin-hyung? Are you home already?” he raised his voice for the elder to hear.

“In the kitchen! Preparing the tea,” he answered, smiling. They couldn’t see him, but that didn’t matter.

Taehyung got rid of his jacket really quick and before Jin could do anything else, he had his arms wrapped around him.

“Hyuuung, you’re my savior. I need that tea more than anything today. Thank you,” he hugged him tight, cheerful and extremely pouty.

“Do you need help, hyung?” Jimin got in the kitchen a little later, still looking as perfect as when he left home in the morning.

“Don’t worry, Jiminie, it’s all done,” the eldest smiled right before the kettle stopped—the water was already boiling. “How did your day go? You seemed pretty excited when you got here.”

Taehyung freed Jin from his hug and sat on the countertop. He had paint stains all over his shirt and his hair was completely disheveled. His outfit was a mess, but that was not something that impressed any of them. They all knew how invested he got in class.

“It was great. The kids started preparing things for school day and got covered in paint from head to toes,” it could seem a disaster to everyone else, but for Taehyung it was the best that could happen. Kids learned the most by experiencing. “It was awesome.”

“Mine was good too,” Jimin pointed out, trying to fix Taehyung’s hair with his hands. “Today we started talking about pyramids and cones and the kids were confused because they couldn’t understand that both things are different. It was too fun to watch,” he giggled again, remembering the chaos in class when he explained it all. “And yours, hyung?”

Jin put the water on a giant teapot and prepared a tray to carry everything to the living room.

“Good. Actually, it was more than good. I got the oldest ones to behave during last period! Can you believe it?” he was pretty astonished, and so were Jimin and Taehyung.

“The wild ones? The ones who never stop talking?” Jin nodded in response to Tae’s questions. “What did you do to them?” Tae furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Today we started a new unit, ‘Love hurts’ it’s called, and we did a listening. I think they liked the song,” Jin explained, and as he spoke, Taehyung’s expression softened.

“Oh. So, love. Of course they were paying attention,” Jimin laughed, thinking of Jin in front of that group of savage teenagers. “Did you give them advice or something?”

Jin left the tray on the countertop before turning around to face Jimin.

“What?” Jimin turned to Taehyung, who was shaking his head. “Oh, come on, I’m not saying it to make fun of you. They are kids, they believe anything you say if you sound convincing.”

“That’s not the point. You know I don’t do dating,” Jin sighed and grabbed the tray to bring the tea to the living room.

Jimin was on his way of apologizing when Taehyung interrupted him, probably trying to save his ass.

Or maybe not.

“I still don’t know why you don’t try it,” there he was. Again. “You’re young, you’re nice and you’re handsome,” he jumped off the countertop and followed his roommates to the couch.

“We’ve discussed it before,” Jin left the tea on the coffee table. “I’m not interested.”

“Yeah, sure,” Taehyung threw himself on the couch and grabbed his favorite pillow, cuddling it. “Tell that to your rom-com collection.”

Jimin burst into laughter when he fell on one of the armchairs.

“HEY,” Jin looked kinda mad, but the three of them knew he was just acting now. “I don’t shame you for your ridiculously gigantic tie collection even though you never wear ties.”

“That was a low one,” Jimin punched Tae on the arm softly, still smiling.

“Okay, okay. I was just saying—I’m a single pringle just like you, you know,” Taehyung crossed arms on the chest. “But dating is fun.”

“... and Finder dates are the funniest. We all know. You say that every damn day, Tae,” Jin started pouring tea into the teacups. “I don’t think a dating app can help me in any way.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“I think you should try it, hyung. I’m sure it’s fun,” Jimin left his phone face down on the coffee table while speaking.

“Your opinion doesn’t count. You’ve been dating Taemin since high school, Chim,” Taehyung was in his sassiest form today.

“Wow, the disrespect. I was not expecting that from you, Tae-tae,” Jimin seemed kinda mad, but laughed to make it seem less important.

Okay, maybe he was a little mad.

Taehyung knew he fucked up, so he decided to try to loosen up a bit before Jimin got even more upset. Mad Jimin was not something he was ready for today. Jin, though, was faster than him. He also knew that Mad Jimin was something they should avoid.

“Enough, both of you. Tae is good with Tinder dates, Jimin and Taemin are great together and I’m doing amazing all by myself. End of discussion,” one of his eyebrows was a little bit raised, which made him look more serious.

“Okaaaay, I won’t say it again,” Tae was talking in a pout, still holding his pillow. “But I think you would like it a looooooot.”

“Tae…,” Jimin looked at him before Jin could say anything else.

“I’m gonna shut up right now, okay? I’m gonna be quiet from now on,” Taehyung spoke with one hand on his chest, as if he were swearing.

Jin and Jimin looked at each other in the eye, already knowing that that was impossible. In the end, all three of them burst into laughter.

 

 

 

Later that day, Jin was already in his bedroom getting ready to sleep when his phone buzzed. He raised his eyebrows and got closer to see what was on the screen.

Jungkook, his little brother, just sent him a text.

‘Hyung, can I stay at your place this weekend? Please.’

Jin smiled and shook his head lightly. Text messages in the middle of the night was such a Jungkook thing to do.

‘Of course, Kookie. You can come anytime. I’ll tell my roommates.’

He threw the phone on the bed and put on the pajama shirt before grabbing it again.

‘YOU’RE THE BEST HYUNG EVER. I LOVE YOU. YOU WON’T REGRET THIS.’

Jin could imagine his little brother at home screaming and running in circles in his room and he laughed in a low voice. He didn’t want to wake Tae or Jimin up, although he knew they probably weren’t sleeping yet.

‘Don’t make me regret it. Good night, baby.’

He was about to put the phone on flight mode when he decided to go to the App store. Without even thinking, he wrote ‘Dating’ on it and scrolled through the list of apps that showed up.

Jungkook sent him a last text saying goodnight, but Jin didn’t even open it. Excited Jungkook was hard to handle and he was too tired for that.

He checked the apps again and sighed. What was he doing? He had already said he was not into dating. No dating, no dating apps, nothing but himself and his friends. It was pretty clear.

He knew his speech by heart at this point because he had repeated it a thousand times during the last years. But the thing was that, deep inside of him, he knew that he wanted to try it. Only to see how it was. He had seen how happy Jimin and Taemin looked together, or how excited Tae was whenever he had a new date. He just wanted to experience it like them. Maybe…

No. He said he didn’t want to do it so he wouldn’t do it. It was not like him.

He checked the apps again and sighed. Was it that bad, though? It was just an app. One download and he could see how it was.

He pressed the download button and waited a few seconds until the app was on his phone.

Now, what? This was a bad idea. He shouldn’t have done it.

Jin pressed the app with one finger to delete it, but it ended up opening. Next thing he knew, he was pressing the ‘New account’ button. He read the titles of the highlighted sections and threw the phone away. His hands covered his face while he was thinking about it.

‘Curiosity killed the cat’ used to say his mother. But Taehyung said it was fun.

One time. Just this once. He was just gonna create a profile and see how it worked and then delete everything and forget about it. He was not planning on saying yes to anyone.

He grabbed the phone again and started to fill in the gaps.

‘Jin, 27. High school teacher.’

He didn’t even write a description. He put a sheep emoji and pressed continue. Now he had to choose a few pictures.

Well, one of the great things of having Jungkook as a sibling and Taehyung as a roommate was that both of them loved photography and usually took great pictures of him. Also, he had an amazing selfie collection, so he mixed everything a little.

But… Why was he paying that much attention to this? He wasn’t even interested. He shook his head when he found himself putting too much effort in choosing the pictures and pressed the continue button.

The profile was created.

A picture of a guy named Kai appeared on the screen and he just swiped right to make it disappear. The moment he did it, though, another guy showed up. This time it was someone called Mark. He swiped right again.

He just kept on swiping right for a few minutes, checking the pictures on the profiles and discarding almost everyone that had pictures showing their abs. He didn’t really know what he was doing until a pop up message with the words ‘You and Shownu matched’ showed up on the screen.

He stopped everything he was doing and checked the screen twice. Match? But… He had been saying no to everyone? How could that be possible? Had he been saying yes to all those dudes?

His eyes widened when he saw another match message. And another one. And another one.

Oh, God. What had he done.

 

 

Namjoon was not feeling his best that day. He was tired. He had been preparing classes for the whole afternoon and he just felt like doing nothing. He was considering going to bed since it was pretty late, but he was not sleepy yet.

His roommate, Jackson, was out that day, so he decided to go to the living room to sit on the couch and watch something on the TV. Friends seemed like a great option since he loved the show, but he knew that if he started watching it now, he wouldn’t be able to stop until 6am, so he decided check what was on the TV that day.

_Problematic Men_ showed up and he decided to leave it. He had always loved it.

The hosts started talking about the guest and since it was an episode he had already seen, he got distracted the moment his phone buzzed. He grabbed it with one hand and unlocked it, checking his messages. The last ones were from Jackson, who was telling him he wouldn’t come home that day. Namjoon was not impressed. Jackson said he was meeting his ex, Mark, that day, and Namjoon knew how they used to solve things. Also, it was like the third time they had broken up over the last month, so he was not surprised at all.

He sighed and then checked the rest of his notifications. Some of the dudes he had matched with on that app were trying to talk to him, but most of them had barely no conversation. They were pretty boring, although some of them tried their best.

Unconsciously, he opened the app again and started swiping left, unimpressed. Same old stuff, almost all being shirtless guys looking for a quick hookup. Pretty standard. But it all changed the moment one caught his eye.

‘Jin, 27. High school teacher.’

He had no description at all, but his pictures looked great. He looked good, actually. He raised an eyebrow and decided to swipe right after seeing all the pictures several times. Then, he continued discarding shirtless guys until his eyes got caught on the tv screen and the guest star made him forget about anything else.  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> First of all, thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Now let me just talk a little about 'One mid-twenties dating crisis'. This story has been sitting on my docs account for months but I just couldn't get myself to post it anywhere. This week, though, I decided to reread it again and I found out it was not as bad as I remembered, so I decided to finally give it a name and post it online. It's far from perfect, but I hope it can put a smile on your face at some point.
> 
> I'll try to post once a week because the story is not finished yet and I don't wanna run out of content too soon. I hope you understand.  
> Update 20/10/19 Once a week my ass.
> 
> I think that's all for now.
> 
> I'd love to hear what you think so far! You can either use the comment section or go to my [twitter](https://twitter.com/greylovestae) profile.
> 
> Thank you!


	3. Epicureans, Empiricists and Utilitarians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I may have done something I regret,” he blurted out, showing him the screen filled with notifications.
> 
> Taehyung grabbed the phone with one hand and his eyes grew bigger the moment he saw the word ‘Finder’ on the screen.
> 
> “SHUT UP, YOU DIDN’T,” he was standing on his feet right in front of the TV screen. Jack and Rose could wait. “YOU FOLLOWED MY ADVICE FOR ONCE.”
> 
> Maybe he shouldn’t have told anything. Excited Taehyung could be pretty scary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am, back with another episode! 
> 
> Today we'll get to know more about Taehyung, Jackson and Mark, aside from Namjoon and Jin, obviously. You'll get to see their dynamics and how they behave when they are together. 
> 
> I hope you like it!

Jin had been fearing the moment he had to open the app again since last night. At the moment, he had panicked and had decided to close it, leaving all the thirst messages unread. 

He wasn’t ready to face his mistake then and he wasn’t ready to do so now, although he would be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about it all day long. He actually kept going back to last night’s mistakes every time he had time some time off.

He was in the teacher’s room getting ready for lunch when he decided to check his phone. He had a lot of notifications from the app, but paid no attention to them and went straight to the group chats.

‘Taemin is coming over tonight. Do you mind?,’ Jimin had written on the group chat. 

Jin smiled and pressed the screen to make the keyboard appear.

‘Not a problem for me. He can come whenever he wants,’ he was about to leave it like that and check his other messages when he remembered what his brother said last night.

‘Actually, I was gonna ask you something too. Jungkook, my brother, asked to come on the weekend. I already told him that he can come, but I wanna know what you think. Would it bother you?,’ Jin knew that neither Tae nor Jimin would have anything against it, but since they agreed on telling everything to each other, he didn’t want to be the one that didn’t follow the rules.

‘TAEMINNIE. OF COURSE HE CAN COME,’ the all caps message was from Tae. ‘And your brother will be welcome too. We will finally get to meet your baby!’ 

A smile brightened up his face when he saw Taehyung’s last message. Jungkook wouldn’t be happy if he knew he always told his roommates he was his ‘baby brother’. But he was, and he will always be his baby brother. That’s why he then checks his chat with him.

‘Hey, Kookie, I already told my roommates and they’re okay with you coming. Do you know how long are you staying?,’ he hit the send button and then checked the other group chats. 

He was pretty much done with his lunch when a notification popped up on his screen saying ‘You and Kai matched!’. He froze and deleted it as quick as possible so no one could see. 

With how many people did he match last night?

Jin switched the phone off and got up to put everything away. Classes were going to start in a few and he wasn’t going to check Finder at work.

 

 

When Namjoon got home that day, the apartment was already filled with Jackson’s loud voice and Mark’s whispers. They were probably in the kitchen since he could hear some sizzling. 

“Hello? Is there anyone home?,” he said out loud, trying to be heard over the noise.

“NAMJOON-AH, WELCOME. WE’RE IN THE KITCHEN!,” everyone in the building probably heard that. Jackson didn’t know how to modulate his voice when it came to screaming.

Namjoon laughed as he made his way to the tiny kitchen.

“Hey, boys. Nice to see you back, Mark,” he greeted him when he saw him sitting on a stool.

Mark nodded lightly and smiled. Namjoon still didn’t know how could someone this calm be with someone as loud as Jackson.

“And what about me? Huh? I feel mistreated,” Jackson pouted, dramatizing as usual.

“I’m glad you’re back, too,” Namjoon shook his head with a smile and opened the fridge to grab a cold beer. “How was your day?”

“Ah, it was great, Namjoon-ah. It was my day off and we decided to go out for lunch. We spent aaaaall day together. Markie is amazing. Right, baby?,” he looked at Mark with heart eyes. 

Probably this was one of the reasons why they always ended up mending things after breaking up. Jackson could be an amazing sweet talker. He could convince a blond person their hair was jet black and get away with it. He could a sneaky bitch too, though. Jackson was the kind of person who would be willing to kill you at nine and saying you are the love of his life at ten. That’s what happened with Mark, actually. They were constantly on and off, but, at this point, that was part of their dynamic. 

Namjoon was already used to it. He had known Jackson for too long to care about his dramas. Jackson’s life was a drama, Namjoon was there as a mere spectator. Sometimes he was allowed to star in a minor role, but that was it. The Jackson Wang Show could only have one main character.

“That sounds great. You’ll be staying for dinner, Mark-hyung?,” he leaned against the fridge and stared at him.

“I can’t tonight. Tomorrow I have work first thing in the morning and I have to go home. Maybe tomorrow. What do you think about that, baby?,” Mark hadn’t been able to finish the question and Jackson was already pouting again.

“Okay, honey. Tomorrow it is…,” he sighed, kinda mad, and turned to the pan that he had on the stove. He was cooking pancakes. “What about you, Namjoon-ah? How was your day?”

“Kinda good, actually,” he took a sip of the beer and pushed some of his hair back. “Classes went great today. But I’m tired, I’ll probably go to bed early today.”

“Grandpa,” Jackson spilled. Then, he put the last pancake on the tray. “You want some?”

“Nah, thanks. I’ll go to my room. Have fun,” he left the kitchen with his beer in hand and went to the bedroom. He left the can on the desk and threw himself on the bed.

He always had his notifications silenced unless it was an urgent call, so he hadn’t seen any text messages in all day. He grabbed his phone and opened a few apps, going through the chats before he went to Finder and saw his latest matches.

Oh.

It was the dude from last night. He remembered him. The one of the sheep emoji. The other teacher. He hadn’t expected to match with him to be honest, so he was pleased now.

He went through all of his photos again, checking his profile one more time. No more information had been added. He smiled. Namjoon was pretty happy with this match.

He hesitated a little before tapping on the conversation to write something.

‘Hey,’ he hit the send button and blocked his phone right away.

Texting first always made him anxious. He was terrible at it.

 

 

Jin was on the couch, his feet on Taehyung’s lap while they were watching Titanic for the zillionth time. Taemin and Jimin were out, so they had the apartment for themselves.

Taehyung had his eyes fixated on the screen, really into the movie, while Jin was not seeing anything at all. He was more focused on thinking about that stupid dating app that he hadn’t found the courage to check yet.

His phone buzzed again and he grabbed it with one hand, quick. Taehyung turned to him with furrowed brows. Jin’s phone had been strangely noisy today and he knew that there was something going on. He could feel the smell of drama even when no one else could.

“Is everything alright?,” Taehyung asked innocently. Or probably faking innocence.

Jin raised his eyes from the phone and looked at him. 

Should he lie or should he tell the truth? 

He bit his lower lip and instantly knew that he had to tell the truth. He was a great actor, but Taehyung knew everything about his nervous ticks and was one of the few people who could tell when he was lying, so there was no other way out. 

“I may have done something I regret,” he blurted out, showing him the screen filled with notifications.

Taehyung grabbed the phone with one hand and his eyes grew bigger the moment he saw the word ‘Finder’ on the screen.

“SHUT UP, YOU DIDN’T,” he was standing on his feet right in front of the TV screen. Jack and Rose could wait. “YOU FOLLOWED MY ADVICE FOR ONCE.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have told anything. Excited Taehyung could be pretty scary.

“I just… I was bored, okay? I’ll probably delete it today,” Jin could see the disappointment in Taehyung’s eyes. “It’s too stressful. I… Come, sit down,” he patted the empty sit right next to him for Tae to sit down. “I did something dumb.”

Taehyung got even more interested the moment he heard Jin talking about something ‘dumb’. 

“You know mistakes help you become a better person, right? That’s what I tell my kids everyday,” Taehyung sat next to Jin and waited for the elder to continue.

“Whatever, Taehyung,” Jin wasn’t up for a session of Taehyung talking about the greatness of making mistakes. “The thing is that I… I may have swiped right instead of left and… Well,” he unlocked his phone and showed him the list of matches and conversations that were already open. “This is what happened.”

“OH! MY! GOD! YOU DIDN’T,” Tae grabbed the phone again and went through all the matches. There were almost…Twenty? “For how long were you on the app? A whole fucking day?,” he furrowed his brows, surprised.

“No, maybe half an hour. It was last night, before going to bed,” Jin couldn’t understand why Taehyung was so confused.

“You got 20 matches in less than AN HOUR? What kind of sorcery is this,” he got closer to the phone, checking the conversations without opening them. “I usually spend a full day for twenty matches, and most of them are not even worth it. Are you fucking kidding me? Are you some kind of Finder God or what? Let me see that magic profile of yours,” Taehyung didn’t even hesitate when he went to Jin’s personal profile and started checking his pictures.

“I just swiped right on everyone, I guess that’s what happened,” that was the best explanation he could get.

“No, what happened is that you used my pictures. God, you look great in these,” he pointed out some of the pictures he himself took of Jin a few weeks ago. “And you don’t even have a description. Unbelievable. You’re a Finder legend and I didn’t even know about it.”

Taehyung sighed, looking kinda hurt. His acting skills had always been on point, so, yeah, he was pretending to be hurt. Jin stretched and arm to try to grab his phone, but Taehyung didn’t allow him to.

“No, wait. We have to check your matches. This will be fun,” an evil laugh took over his expression. “My bet is at least twelve dickpics and maybe two or three decent candidates. What do you say?”

Now Jin was confused as hell. Of course he knew about dickpics, but he didn’t understand why Taehyung was bringing them up then. He furrowed his brows but let Taehyung check his conversations, curious.

“Let’s start with this Shownu dude…” Taehyung opened the conversation and there it was. First dickpic of the night. “Not really your style. Although he looks good. Hm,” he checked the screen from different angles while he was talking.

“Taehyung?,” the younger looked at Jin in the eye, a smile on his face. “Are you seriously checking that dick as if it were an art piece?”

“What? Why are you so shocked, hyung?,” Taehyung shook his head. “Of course I am. What do you think this is all about? That’s why I said you may find some decent guys. This is the norm on the app,” he pointed at the dickpic on the screen as if it were the same as showing a little puppy to a friend. “You need to get used to this. That’s what I did. It’s not my cup of tea,” Jin raised his brows in disagreement. “Okaaaay. I maybe like seeing a few dickpicks every once in a while, but it’s not my main priority. There’s more to it. But it’s fun to see how many unwanted dickpics you get in a day. C’mon, let’s check the other dudes.”

Jin sighed but decided to give in, allowing Taehyung to go through his messages. He was far more used to it than him.

 

 

 

Two hours later, Jin and Taehyung were still on the couch. Jimin and Taemin were now in the former’s bedroom and there were a few trays of take out food on the coffee table.

“And I think this was the last one, hyung,” Taehyung went through the 25 -yes, there had been new matches while they were checking the old ones- conversations to verify that all individuals had been checked. “And this leads to… 16 dickpics, 5 decent dudes and 4 that will probably send a dickpic in a few. Not bad,” he smiled when the screen brightened up with a new notification. “17 dickpics it is.”

Jin threw himself against the pillows and sighed. There was a whole new world to dating apps and he was just starting to know about them. He felt like a grandpa. a very outdated grandpa.

“Should I do something now?,” he was thinking of deleting the app and not downloading it ever again, but Taehyung would probably kill him after all the work he had done. 

“You just have to wait. We’ve given an answer to the somewhat decent ones and to the non-dickpics too. They will answer during the day,” he turned off the phone and put it face down. “I don’t know who will go first. This Yoongi dude seems interesting, but then, too, there’s Mark, Hobi, Si Hyoung and… Ken? They could be decent people. Their pictures are good. And you never know, maybe the three on the future dickpic list turn out decent too. Anything’s possible on Finder. Well,” he furrowed his brows and shook his head. “There’s still a lot of dickheads, but that’s something we cannot change,” he sat with his legs crossed, finally hugging his favourite pillow. “I have to say, hyung, that I’m impressed. I didn’t think you’d do it. You never do any of the things I tell you.”

Jin saw the pout in Taehyung’s lips and pinched his cheek with one finger.

“That’s because you’re terrible at giving advice,” he blurted out without even thinking.

Taehyung brought a hand to his chest and gave let his best hurt expression take over. 

“How dare you,” he dramatized, disappointed.

“Oh, c’mon. I didn’t mean it like that. You’re great at work,” Taehyung relaxed a little, but his brows were still furrowed. “I mean when talking about dating. You and I are completely different. You’re far more of an extrovert than I am. Things like these were not made for someone like me.”

“You know that’s not true. You’re great, hyung,” he rested his cheek against the pillow, staring at Jin. “The only problem is that you lack confidence sometimes. You need to step up your game.”

“It’s not about that, Taehyung, but I appreciate your advice. I will follow my own path and then we’ll see what happens,” Jin sighed, leaning against the table to grab his glass of water. “I was bored. I just wanted to try, okay? That’s it. I’m not looking for anything. This is just a game,” he drank a few sips out of his glass of water, filling his mouth before swallowing it.

“I know that there’s something that you’re not telling me, but I’ll believe what you say because I trust you,” Taehyung finally smiled, closing his eyes shut. 

“Thank you. Now I think it’s about time we go to bed,” he checked his watch and nodded. “Tomorrow we have to go to work early. Good night, Tae. Sleep well,” he got up and patted the younger’s head before going to his room.

Jack was already drowning on the screen, but neither of them had been paying attention to the movie in a long time.

Taehyung was right. There was something more. He just wanted to know if dating was made for him or not. He was kinda tired of always being the eternally single friend.

 

 

 

Namjoon came out of the kitchen after having done the dishes. When they decided to rent this apartment together, Jackson and him agreed on sharing household duties and doing the dishes was his main task. Jackson was the one to cook, though, and laundry and cleaning changed every week. 

It was a pretty simple system but it worked for them. It helped him Namjoon things tidy, although he worked better in a chaotic environment. He tried his best for Jackson, though, which was a great achievement considering his nature.

He stopped by the bathroom to wash up and then went to his room to get ready for bed. His pyjamas was thrown on the bed and there were tons of books that needed to be sorted on the desk and on the floor. He should do something about it, but not now. He was too tired for that today. That’s why he chose to put on the pyjamas and then threw himself on the bed, forgetting about everything else.

As he did every night, he checked his phone and went through his chats until something caught his eye.

‘You’re like the fourth person that says ‘Hey’ to me today. Congrats!’

Namjoon’s smile widened. 

The guy from last night had replied. He didn’t really know what he had been expecting from someone who had a sheep for a description, but it was definitely not this. It was kinda good, though. It made him look fun and probably tired of seeing the same old shit over and over again. He wouldn’t be lying if he said that he was tired too. 

He was not great at flirting, but definitely loved texting. Although the first text messages were always awkward. That was one of the reasons why he got on the app, actually. That day, Jackson and Mark were busy making up for the time they had lost during their last breakup and he had been stuck in his room, bored. 

Downloading the app seemed like a great option at the time and up to that day he hadn’t regretted it that much. The amount of unwanted dickpics he had reveiced was no competition to the fun he’d had.

He had spent so much time using the app that he had come up with a personal classification for the profiles based off Western philosophy. At the time, he had been dealing with that in class and it became inevitable.

Epicureans were definitely the biggest group. People that worshipped pleasure over everything else. They were not bad guys, but they had different priorities than Namjoon. Then there were Empiricists, who wanted to get to know the other people by talking deeply about their feelings. They were generally nice, but could get kinda boring, especially if they had recently broken up with their partners and wanted to rant about their exes. And, finally, Utilitarians, a group of people who were in for a quickie and didn’t care about anything else. Namjoon didn’t really stumble upon that many profiles like these, probably because it was the opposite of what he wanted. 

Not everyone could be put into one of these three groups, but the majority was easily classified. This Jin dude, though looked like an Epicurean for his photographs, but his description said the opposite. His words last words proved Namjoon that he was right. But in which group should he put him now?

He was curious to know, actually.

‘Well, at least I got you to answer back, so that’s a win.’

Maybe he should start considering a new category, but to do so, they should at least have a decent-length conversation first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for today! I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> I initially planned on doing a different classification for Namjoon, but I stumbled upon some of my old notes from high school and I couldn't help but use philosophers. Any guesses on which philosophy suits Jin the best? 
> 
> Random fact, I've been revising this while listening to [Kiss me thru the phone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Fbo4kU2AU) (blame it on that Jungkook video from Twitter because DAMN) and I think it kinda fits the more crackhead side of this fic.
> 
> See you next week and thank you so much for reading and supporting! Kudos and bookmarks make me incredibly happy uwu


	4. Subway stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t be shy now, you’ll be sharing an apartment with him for a while. You should be apologizing, not getting flustered.”
> 
> Jimin turned to Jin when he heard that ‘for a while’ with furrowed brows.
> 
> “Yes, Jimin, for a while,” Jin threw himself on the couch, careless. “Jungkook here has decided to move in and will be staying with us for a little longer,” he pushed his hair back, revealing his forehead. “If that’s okay with you, I mean. If not, I’m gonna kick him out right now,” Jin warned Jungkook, looking at him when he said that last thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week's episode is 1k longer than the ones I posted before. I hope you enjoy it!

Jungkook was waiting for the subway to come while checking the time on his phone. He was wearing all black and his hair was covered with a blue beanie. By his side, there was a giant backpack on the floor. 

He was definitely carrying more stuff than what someone like him would need for a weekend. The thing was, he was not actually planning on staying only for the weekend. He hadn’t told his brother yet, though, but he was planning on doing so. Kinda. Well, he hadn’t thought about it too much, but he was sure he would be able to make something up.

After finishing college last year, he had gone back to his parents’ home while looking for a job, but it hadn’t worked out as he expected. Five months in and he was already sick of being stuck in the same old town. So, eventually, he decided that going to the city was the best option.

The subway finally got to the station and Jungkook jumped in, leaning his back against one of the walls of the wagon while holding his backpack straight.

‘I’m on my way there, hyung,’ he texted his brother with a smug smile on his face. 

Jin was probably going to murder him that night.

He shook his head still smiling and put the phone away, keeping it in one of the pockets of his jacket. It was only February, so the weather was still pretty cold.

The subway got to the next station and people started getting off quickly so the ones who were waiting to get inside could do it sooner than later. He was not really paying attention to his phone right now because there was no signal. 

Jungkook’s smiled widened when he saw a guy helping an old lady get off the wagon. His expression changed, though, when said guy almost got stuck in between the doors when trying to get himself in. Thankfully, he didn’t get hurt. 

He kept an eye on him for a little, just to make sure he was okay.

He had messy light brown hair, was wearing a long oversized jacket and a dark blue beret backwards. The outfit really suited him, it made his features pop. He had slightly tanned skin, thin lips and what Jungkook thought were the most gorgeous eyes he had seen in a while. 

When he realized he had been staring for too long, Jungkook put his head down to look at his feet. He hadn’t meant to be disrespectful in any way. 

A few moments later, he raised his head again and he saw that the guy was coming forward, approaching him.

Was he in trouble now?

“Do we know each other?,” the other guy asked with cheerful voice and a bright smile on his face. He didn’t look mad at all, which made Jungkook relax a little.

“Uh… No? It’s my first time in the city,” Jungkook bit his lower lip unconsciously, too nervous to actually think about what he was doing.

The other guy frowned. He seemed confused. 

“Oh,” he added without hesitation. “I thought I’ve seen you somewhere else. Your face looks familiar.” 

Jungkook tilted his head slightly.

“I’m sorry but I don’t really think so. I…,” he didn’t know how to continue talking and the other guy seemed to notice because he stepped in right away.

“Well, in that case,” one of his eyebrows raised a little. Seductively. Jungkook would’ve loved to think about it in another way, but it was impossible to see it differently. “I wouldn’t mind getting to know you. Ah, and by the way, my name’s Taehyung,” his smile widened as he tried to reach out for his hand.

Jungkook looked down for a moment and then his eyes went back to Taehyung’s face.

“U-uh…,” he was getting really really really really flustered. His cheeks were starting to burn. Was it always like this in the city? He had never experienced something like that before. Not even in college!

Taehyung laughed, trying to make the situation a little less uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you. I can be a little straightforward sometimes,” Jungkook didn’t know how much of that ‘sometimes’ was real. For what he had seen, he would say that he was always straightforward.

In the end, though, Jungkook toughened up and shook his hand.

“No, don’t worry. I’m just…,” he swallowed nervously. “Anyway. I… Nice to meet you, Taehyung,” he reached out and squeezed his hand lightly. “I’m Jungkook.”

Taehyung’s smiled widened and Jungkook’s heart skipped a beat. 

He didn’t know what he was doing but he was not regretting it at all.

 

 

Yoongi yawned, bored to the bone. Being a security guard wasn’t a hard job when you spent half your day in a monitoring room, but it could get kinda boring. 

Checking the 20 screens he had right in front of him wasn’t a big deal, especially because he was working in a private parking lot and most of the people were still at work.

He messed up his hair with one hand a little, trying to keep himself awake.

Yoongi would usually bring his own laptop so he could continue working on his songs while at work, but today his boss was around and he couldn’t take it out of its case. He didn’t actually care about what his boss thought of him, but he definitely needed this job, so he had to stay put. He couldn’t go back to a bar or a pub again. 

His phone buzzed and he grabbed it to check what it was. At least that he could do. He knew everyone else did.

Yoongi unlocked the phone with one finger and went through his latest interactions, unfazed. A few months ago, he had downloaded one of those lame dating apps that were everywhere and now he had become kind of addicted to it. 

Well, not kind of, but rather full on addicted. 

It was the easiest way to hit on someone straight away, really. And, let’s be honest, he had never been the patient kind of guy. He could spend a whole month working on a song, yet when it came to human relationships, he was more of a practical person. The app made it all easier. When he felt like meeting someone, he just knew to whose profiles should he swipe right to, and when he felt like having a light conversation, he knew what to do too. 

He didn’t care if they thought he was an asshole because most of them were assholes too. His only rule when it came to random hookups was that safety was first. Everything else, he didn’t really care. He was no one to judge.

And yes, he was one of those who sent dickpics first. Maybe not as an introduction message, but probably after a few sentences. It really was a great way to get what he wanted.

He sighed when he saw that most of the texts were from new matches. There were two candidates that really stood out during this past week. The first one was a dancer and the second one a teacher. They were on the no-dickpic list for now, since their profiles seemed kinda decent. 

The teacher had replied a few hours ago, so he checked that first.

‘What’s the lesson for today, teacher?,’ had been his first line. He wasn’t very proud of it, but whatever. This app wasn’t the place for poetry. He preferred to keep that for his music.

‘It’s English class today. You think you’re ready?’

Yoongi read the message a few times, trying to figure out what was the guy planning on accomplishing with that. Should he answer or should he leave the message like that?

He pressed the keyboard before he could even think about it twice.

‘I’m kinda bad at it. Should I ask for tutoring?’

Well, that wasn’t that bad, right? Right? He shook his head when he reread his already sent message and decided to go for the other conversations.

At least he was awake now.

 

 

 

“... I’m going to give you a place to sleep, but don’t think that I’ve forgiven you,” Jin’s voice could be heard from the other side of the door even though he was not inside yet.

Both Jimin and Taehyung were now at home, the first one in the kitchen, the latter, in the bathroom. Jin had met his younger brother somewhere near the apartment and was now bringing him home. 

The plan was for Jungkook to stay for the weekend and then go back home. Or that was what Jin had thought, until he had seen him with that giant backpack of his and a guilty smile on his face.

“C’mon, hyung, don’t be mad! You know how going back home feels,” Jungkook tried to make his brother come to his senses, but it was not working. Like, at all.

The younger sighed, leaving his backpack on the floor while taking off his shoes.

“That’s not reason enough for you to not tell me ANYTHING,” Jin was angry, anyone who knew him could tell. His ears were bright red. “You should’ve told me. You know I live with more people, right?,” he’d said it a thousand times by now, but he repeated it once again to see if it made Jungkook give it a thought. “And you also know that I hate when you do things like this, without thinking twice. Jungkook, you’re fucking 23 years old, you’re not a kid anymore. You cannot do stuff without thinking about the consequences.”

Jungkook pouted, looking like a lost puppy on a rainy day.

“I’m sorry, hyung,” he knew he had done something impulsive, but he hadn’t thought Jin would react like this. Was it really that bad? “I promise I will make it up to you, okay? I will look for an apartment and a job and I’ll be out in the blink of an eye.”

Jin shook his head and sighed. His brother was impossible to deal with when he had something in mind. 

He hung his coat on a hook and walked to the living, hoping that Jungkook would follow him. Jimin was already there, his jet black hair all pushed back and a giant smile on his face.

“Jinnie-hyung, you’re home!,” he bent his head a little, respectful. “And I guess this is your brother, Jungkook?” Jimin took a step forward and extended a hand to reach out for his.

Jungkook left his backpack on the floor again and stopped right in front of the dude.

“Yes, yes. Jungkook, that’s my name,” he seemed nervous. 

“I can’t believe you,” Jin rolled his eyes, incredulous. Jungkook could be the most shameless person when at home but then became the shiest human when he was surrounded by strangers. “Don’t be shy now, you’ll be sharing an apartment with him for a while. You should be apologizing, not getting flustered.”

Jimin turned to Jin when he heard that ‘for a while’ with furrowed brows.

“Yes, Jimin, for a while,” Jin threw himself on the couch, careless. “Jungkook here has decided to move in and will be staying with us for a little longer,” he pushed his hair back, revealing his forehead. “If that’s okay with you, I mean. If not, I’m gonna kick him out right now,” Jin warned Jungkook, looking at him when he said that last thing.

The younger teacher burst into laughter when he heard what had happened. Jin wasn’t laughing at all.

“Oh, Jin-hyung, don’t worry. Of course he can stay!,” Jimin’s eyes closed the moment he started smiling. “He’s your brother, we’re not gonna kick him ou…”

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of a door being opened. Then, Taehyung came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.

Jungkook’s eyes got as big as they could when he recognized him, and the same thing happened with Taehyung. 

No way. 

No. Fucking. Way.

“Tae-tae, finally,” Jimin approached him, a little pouty. “You’ve been in the shower for a full hour. What were you doing there?,” with furrowed brows, Jimin looked playful.

“Paint, glue and glitter, that’s what happened,” Taehyung answered quickly, trying to act normal, as if the guy he had just been flirting with an hour ago wasn’t in his living room right now. “What did I miss?”

“Ah, yes, well…,” Jin got up and approached Taehyung, making his brother come closer too. “This is my brother, Jungkook. I’ve spoken to you about him before, right?”

Taehyung nodded carefully, before he stretched a hand to reach out for him.

“Yes, I remember. Nice to meet you, Jungkook-ah,” he smiled very sweetly, his cheeks getting all chubby when his lips curled. 

Jungkook decided to follow Taehyung’s steps, so he made it seem like he didn’t know him either. Jin wouldn’t suspect anything, right? 

Right?

“N-nice to meet you too, Tae…,” Jungkook froze when he realized Taehyung had not said his full name out loud yet.

Jin was so mad at Jungkook, though, that he didn’t even notice that something was off between him and Taehyung. As he had known for as long as he could remember, Jungkook could be very awkward when he met new people.

“Taehyung, it’s Taehyung. Although I think it’s hyung for you, right?,” Taehyung continued talking as if nothing had happened, still smiling.

Oh, boy, the mess they were getting themselves into.

 

 

 

Jin was in the bathroom, finally having some time for himself alone. 

Dinner had been pretty stressful. His roommates had been getting all over Jungkook, trying to get to know him better. Jin had been talking about him for a while and both of them were curious. Jungkook, on the other hand, had been somewhat awkward. He seemed stressed, that is, more stressed than usual, as if there was something that worried him. 

It probably was something related to what Jin had told him when he found out his plan, so the eldest sibling hadn’t paid that much attention to it. 

Jin shook his head and tried to forget about it for a while, only focusing on himself. He needed to relax. He got rid of his clothes and turned the water on to get the shower ready. A hot, steamy shower would definitely help him a lot. 

When the water started to get hot, he got inside the shower and closed his eyes, letting the water rinse away his worries. He stayed like this for a few minutes, until he reached out for the soap and started to clean his body thoroughly. 

He had enough problems on his own to now having to be looking after his 23-years-old-baby-brother’s safety 24/7. He shook his head again and put some soap on his hair, massaging the scalp carefully.

His phone buzzed on top of the sink and he could hear that from the shower. Considering how stressful his night had been, he had completely forgotten about his chats up until now and, suddenly, his curiosity awoke. He had been checking the notifications all day long, but he hadn’t been able of open the app yet. 

He was definitely going to do that after the shower. 

He needed time for himself, right? This was definitely something he had to do now. He needed to expand his social circle. It was definitely a poor excuse, but whatever. He was not planning on justifying his actions to anyone tonight. He was a 27-years-old man doing what he wanted. 

He closed the water and grabbed his pink bathrobe, a gift from both Jimin and Taehyung for his last birthday. He rubbed his face with the fabric, drying it carefully.

Then, he put on the sleepers, grabbed the phone and left the bathroom to get to his room. He noticed that there was light in the living room, but decided to ignore it. He knew Jungkook was the kind of person who would stay up until late.

Once inside, he closed the door and got rid of the bathrobe to put on his favorite alpaca-patterned pajamas. It was the coziest one he had and definitely one of his favorites. He let a long sigh before he threw himself on the bed, phone in hand.

Last night, Taehyung had helped him delete most of the dickpic profiles so the guys wouldn’t be able to contact him again. Now, his match list was not that long. Still, all the other guys had replied during the day. 

The last message was from Shownu. Yes, he was on the dickpic list, but Taehyung thought that he should give him a try. He had been his first match after all.

‘Would I pass your exams, teacher?’

God, that line was so cheesy. He really didn’t know why Taehyung insisted on not deleting his profile right away.

‘You’re grounded, Mr. Shownu.’

Jin facepalmed himself. Taehyung loved to play too much. This was not made for him.

‘Will you punish me too, teacher?’

He should maybe consider checking another chat and leave this for the last. He should definitely do that. 

Jin closed Shownu’s chat and opened Yoongi’s. This one seemed kinda decent. No dickpics yet, but Taehyung told him to be careful. Yoongi’s profile was one of those that could be misleading.

‘What’s the lesson for today, teacher?’  
‘It’s English class today. You think you’re ready?’  
‘I’m kinda bad at it. Should I ask for tutoring?’

Why was everyone using the teacher-student prompt to hit on him? He was already getting tired of it and it was only his second conversation.

‘I’ll have to think about it.’

Jin hit the send button and opened another chat, interested. Now it was time for Mark. He seemed cool. His pictures were good and his profile was very well planned. The only thing that had a warning sing on it was the other guy on some of his pictures, but Taehyung told him that some people did that, so he should pay no attention to it for now. That is, unless the guy mentioned his ex or something like that. If something like that happened, Jin should just delete the conversation and disappear. Taehyung advised him to not get involved in exes dramas. 

‘Hey! How was your day today?’

Actually, his introduction was the nicest one by far. He seemed chill, which was something that he liked.

‘Hi, Mark. My day was okay. My brother came over for the weekend and I’ve spent the afternoon with him. What about you?’

Was it TMI? Maybe? Taehyung had said… Okay, let’s forget about Taehyung for once. The guy didn’t seem to be looking for a quick hookup, so he was probably genuinely asking the question. 

… Right?

Jin shook his head and tried to go to another chat, but he noticed that Mark was writing, so he waited to see what was next.

‘You have a brother? That’s cool! I have one. And two sisters, too. I assume that you’re not from here if he came to visit?’

Oh. He wasn’t definitely expecting this. Nice. The conversation was flowing and it didn’t seem forced. Fuck Taehyung and his rules.

‘Wow! Four siblings! That’s a lot. Do you get on well?’  
‘Ah, yes. I’m not from here. I work here, though, so I live in the city.’

He hadn’t finished sending the first message that Mark was already writing. 

‘Yeah, four hahahaha. My parents were crazy. I could never raise four kids at once.’

Jin smiled at the thought of having four kids with a partner. If someone asked him about that, the answer was easy: never in a million years.

‘Oh, so you’re here temporarily only? What a pity.’

He gulped when he read the last message.

‘I’m used to dealing with kids all day, but yeah, four kids at home…’

Maybe he should drop that topic and only focus on the second one? Or was it better to focus on the first topic so he wouldn’t have to face the other one?

‘Duh! I forgot that you’re a teacher! Will you be staying for the whole year or are you doing a replacement?’

Was this a genius move or was this a GENIUS MOVE? The guy combined both topics in one answer. 

‘I’m staying for the whole year. I got a full vacancy for the year.’

‘That’s cool. Then we will have plenty of time to meet each other.’

Jin blushed even though there was no one to see him. The guy was being straightforward but in a very respectful way. “A full on expert” would say Taehyung.

‘Yeah… So, how was your day?’

The moment he hit the send button, Yoongi replied to his message from earlier and he decided to check his conversation while Mark was answering.

‘I promise I’m a good student. I learn fast.’

This was getting disgusting. Should he just delete the conversation or…?

‘Anyway, how was your day?’

What? Like. WHAT? He just left the cheesy hook up line and went straight to being a decent person. 

‘Good. A little tiring, but good. And yours?’

He should definitely continue checking his messages regularly. Today the conversations didn’t seem as forced as they did before. 

“Everything’s possible on Finder,” he could hear Taehyung’s voice in his head.

Well, he was not going to tell Taehyung that he was enjoying the conversations so far. Not yet, at least. He wanted to keep that for himself.

 

 

 

Jungkook was lying on the sofa with his pajamas on. His backpack was open and there were a few things on the coffee table. The room didn’t look messy, though. He had never been a messy person, and he was not planning on becoming one today. Jin was on the verge of committing murder, he didn’t want to give him more reasons to do so.

He let his head fall on top of the cushions and grabbed his phone to check his social media. He had been posting stories and pictures throughout the day and some people had been leaving feedback. 

Jungkook was checking the last message Yugyeom had sent when he heard some noise on the other side of the room. He got up right away and saw that Taehyung was leaning against the doorframe that connected the living room to the corridor.

“Hey,” the older guy said, smiling shyly.

“Hey,” he answered, completely flustered.

Taehyung laughed weakly as he got inside the living room.

“I can’t believe it,” he started talking, not raising his voice so he wouldn’t catch anyone’s attention but Jungkook’s. “I knew you looked familiar, but never expected you to be Jin-hyung’s little brother. This is just…,” he shook his head, getting closer to the sofa.

Jungkook made some gestures to let him know it was okay to sit on the couch. A little awkward considering that it was Taehyung’s apartment, but nevermind.

“I had no idea you were my brother’s roommate…,” Jungkook looked down to his feet for a moment, not really daring to look at him in the eye right now.

“Well, that’s not something we can change now,” Taehyung tried to laugh it off, but both of them could tell that he was nervous too. He was usually the one who took the lead, not the one being surprised.

“Yeah…,” Jungkook didn’t even know what to say. He was getting nervous by the minute and having Taehyung by his side didn’t help him at all.

Taehyung laughed again, this time because of Jungkook’s flushed cheeks.

“You don’t need to by shy in front of me. We will be seeing each other a lot from now on, right?,” he tilted his head a little to see if Jungkook dared to stare at him for once.

Jungkook started playing with his fingers.

“I guess so, yes…,” he was getting redder by the minute.

“Listen, you don’t need to worry. I won’t say anything if you don’t want to. No one needs to know about what happened on the subway,” Taehyung squeezed one of Jungkook’s hands between his fingers. 

Finally, Jungkook raised his head and looked at him in the eye.

“That’s better,” Taehyung smiled kindly.

“Okay so… We don’t tell this to anyone. That’s okay with me,” he nodded, trying to give himself some strength. “Should we… Uh…,” Jungkook hesitated a little, having lost almost all of his confidence. “Should we start over? Like…,” he put his hand right between him and Taehyung. “I’m Jungkook. Nice to meet you,” in the end, his voice sounded a little rougher.

Taehyung couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Good idea, Jungkook. Very nice to meet you,” Taehyung reached out for his hand and squeezed it softly. “I’m Taehyung.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week, Taekook finally met and we finally got to know Yoongi. Next week is Hobi's turn.  
> Yes, this is gonna be very slow burn. I'll add the tag asap.
> 
>  
> 
> Feel free to contact me on Twitter or leave a comment here!
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	5. Jobless Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If only he hadn’t heard the screams that came out of Jackson’s room.
> 
> Mark and him were fighting. Again.
> 
> Namjoon sighed and went straight to his room, trying to make as little noise as possible so no one would notice him. When Jackson and Mark fought, the best thing was to not be around them because they would find a way to get him involved and make him pick a side.
> 
> Namjoon knew. It had happened too many times for him to forget about.
> 
> If today was a good night, their screams would probably become moans in less than thirty minutes. If it was a bad night, though, Mark would leave with a loud thump and Jackson would come to his room shortly after, seeking comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm finally back with a new episode. I'm sorry for the long wait, I've been busy during the last weeks.

It was first thing in the morning and the principal was talking to the janitor by the main door. Namjoon was just getting to the high school when he was told to stop. The principal said goodbye to the janitor and approached him with a comforting expression on her face.

“Good morning, Kim,” she said, and Namjoon noticed that something was not okay.

“Good morning, Miss,” he greeted her with a gentle bow.

“I was just waiting for you,” she started talking, going straight to the point. For what Namjoon knew about her, she preferred to avoid lightweight conversation whenever possible. “There have been a few changes and I need to talk to you about them.”

“No problem, Miss. Do we need to go to your office?” he asked, politely. He didn’t really know what to expect.

“We don’t need to. I’ll be quick,” she smiled softly and put a hand on Namjoon’s shoulder. “If you have time, of course.”

“No problem, Miss. It’s still early,” he was no one to tell the principal what to do.

“Good. It’s not going to take long. After all, you probably expected something like this to happen sooner or later, right?” something in Namjoon’s head suddenly clicked and he understood what was happening. He didn’t say anything, though, waiting for her to continue. He could be wrong. “The teacher you’ve been covering for over the last weeks will be coming back tomorrow. I’m sorry to say that we’ll have to end your contract today.”

Namjoon nodded, his expression neutral. Being a new teacher, he had known since the very beginning that this wouldn’t last long.

“Okay,” he replied, polite. “I’ll collect my things when I’m finished with my schedule. I’m gonna leave all the materials I’ve used in the teachers’ room for the other teacher to check,” he explained, meticulous. He could be a mess at home but at work he was neat and organized.

“Thank you, Namjoon-ah. We’ll miss you a lot,” she smiled, this time a little brighter than before. “We really enjoyed having you here over the last weeks. And remember that you can contact us whenever you need anything, okay? We’ll try to help you with everything we can.”

“Thank you so much, principal Ahn. I really enjoyed being here too,” he pressed his lips together and gave her a genuine smile, his dimples clearly showing. “Now, if you don’t mind, I should go prepare today’s classes and say goodbye to the kids too.”

“Of course, Namjoon-ah. Remember to come by my office before leaving, yeah?” Namjoon nodded and she waved with her hand before going to the teachers’ room.

Well, tomorrow he’d be jobless again.

 

 

 

Jungkook had been checking the Internet extensively since Friday night yet he had found nothing. Almost all the apartments he had seen were too expensive for him to even consider them and the job offers available asked for at least three years of working experience or a degree he didn’t have. To say he was tired would be an understatement. He was fed up with it.

At first, he had thought it would be an easy task, but now he knew he had been clearly mistaken.

Sitting on the couch, Jungkook sighed and closed his laptop, throwing it on the floor carefully. He hadn’t really thought about this twice when he had decided to come here. Jin had been right, as usual.

He sighed again and pressed the heel of his hands against his closed eyes. He just wanted a job. Anything would do. He didn’t care if it was something that didn’t have anything to do with his degree, he just wanted a job. Why was it so damn difficult?

Jungkook got up and went to the kitchen to grab something to eat. He felt like shit. His parents had scolded him when they had found out what he had done and Jin had been mad at him for the whole weekend.

And now he was starting to become a nuisance to anyone here too. Jimin and Taehyung had said nothing because they were polite, but he knew that they wanted their couch free again the sooner the better. He could feel it.

Jungkook filled a glass with water and drank it in one go. Then, he grabbed a red apple and started munching on it without even considering cleaning it first.

He was thinking of checking more webpages when he heard the main door opening and Jimin’s voice filled the apartment.

“… I’m telling you, Taehyung, I think there’s something going on with Ae Cha’s parents,” his voice stopped abruptly when he heard saw a pair of chunky black shoes by the door. “Oh, Jungkook-ah, are you home?”

“Yes! I’m in the kitchen, hyung. Hang on,” he got out of the room and went to the entrance to meet them. “Good evening.”

Both Jimin and Taehyung smiled when they saw him. Taehyung even dared to wink because Jimin couldn’t see his face. When Jungkook noticed that, his cheeks got bright red.

“Good evening, Jungkookie,” Taehyung walked by his side and messed up his hair with one hand. He seemed unbothered, as if he did this kind of things regularly.

“Hey!” Jungkook complained, but Taehyung didn’t pay attention to it. In addition to that, he laughed it off before falling on the couch.

“You’ll have to get used to it, Jungkook-ah,” Jimin added, smiling wide. He had known Taehyung for a very long time, he knew how things with him worked out. “Got any luck with your hunt?”

Jungkook sighed and shook his head, following Jimin to the living room.

“Well, there’s this offer from a restaurant that pays really well,” he started explaining before falling on the sofa too.

“But?” Jimin asked, already imagining what the drawbacks to the job could be.

“They ask for at least five years of experience and I have nothing but a day, so, yay!” he even tried to joke by throwing a fist in the air, but both Jimin and Taehyung noticed the disappointment in his voice.

“Don’t worry, Jungkook-ah, these things happen. Most jobs ask for too much experience,” Jimin pouted, pulling his feet on the sofa so he could hug his own legs.

“Yeah, and you need to consider the month we’re in. This area offers a lot of jobs during the summer months, but during the winter almost everything is closed,” Taehyung’s expression looked comforting and it made Jungkook smile a little. “Don’t get discouraged, I’m sure you’ll find something soon.”

In that same moment, Jimin hit his forehead with one hand and both Taehyung and Jungkook looked at him with furrowed brows.

“I almost forgot! This morning I saw this and I thought you might be interested,” Jimin grabbed his phone and unlocked it to check his pictures folder. “It’s a coffee shop near our school that opened recently. They are looking for a waiter and the requirements are pretty standard. Look,” he shoved his phone right in front of Jungkook’s eyes and the later one almost cried in excitement.

“No way! Thank you, Jimin-hyung!” he got up from the couch, phone in his hand, and started running around the room.

A few seconds later, though, he suddenly stopped.

“I’m gonna call right away to see if the job’s still available,” at this point it was difficult to see if he was talking to himself or to Jimin and Taehyung. “I should keep my expectations low, though. Just in case someone has already called, but…,”

He never got to say it out loud because Taehyung stopped him mid-sentence.

“If you don’t call right now I’m gonna do it myself,” he warned him, threatening.

Jungkook looked at him with wide eyes and nodded carefully. Taehyung looked and sounded threatening.

“I-I’ll d-do it,” he stuttered a little, which made Jimin laugh.

“C’mon, Jungkook-ah. You can do it,” he encouraged him, stretching an arm to try and reach out for his shoulder.

Jungkook looked towards him and smiled back.

Then, he pressed the call button.

 

 

 

Yoongi grabbed the water bottle he had near his computer and drank a few sips without taking his eyes off the computer screen. For the last few days he had been working on a new song and he was about to finish it.

Even though he didn’t have a deadline, he had made it his goal to finish it before the next day and he was planning on accomplishing it.

It shouldn’t be difficult. He had recorded the vocals and the piano, the additional instruments and the base, and the bridge was almost done. The only thing that was missing were a few arrangements.

It shouldn’t take long, but since he was a very meticulous person, he would probably need a full night to fix all the mistakes.

He was trying to find a way to make the bass sound smoother when the screen of his phone lightened up and he saw a name that he recognized. In any other case he would have ignored it and just continued working, but not that day.

He pressed the stop button on the keyboard and grabbed his phone to see what the other guy had said. It was Hoseok, the dancer he had been talking to lately. There were also a few other messages from Professor Jin too, but he ignored them. He was not terrible to talk to, but he had become fonder of Hoseok. There was something about the way he spoke that made it difficult to stop talking to him. He was bright and cheerful, incredibly appealing.

‘Can I have a sneak peek of that song you’re working on?  
You’re really making me intrigued. I wanna know how it sounds.’

Yoongi wasn’t the kind of person who would talk to anyone about his projects, but there was something in Hoseok that made him trust him. He was a dance instructor and professional dancer. His whole life revolved around music, and Yoongi could feel it in the way he spoke about the songs he had been practicing lately.

His approach on music was intriguing. It was completely different from that of Yoongi, but very appealing. So appealing, Yoongi wanted to know everything about it.

For him, there was nothing sexier than someone talking about the things they loved. Dickpics could set the mood, but nothing could beat the conversations he was having with Hoseok lately.

Hoseok didn’t listen to music. He lived it. He loved it, breathed it, felt it with his whole body. Music was what moved his life and Yoongi could tell, because it was the same for him.

Yoongi sighed and buried himself in the chair, taking off his glasses. He needed them to work with the computer and basically to read anything that was not written using capital letters. His sight was horrible and was getting worse daily and yet here he was, trying to read the text messages from his phone without glasses because there was no one as stubborn as him.

‘I’ll show you when it’s finished. There are still a few things missing. It’s not perfect yet.’

He sent the message after writing it carefully. Then, he massaged his temples with the fingers of his right hand. He was tired. He really needed to sleep. He had been awake for too many hours that day, but he couldn’t go to bed yet. He couldn’t leave an unfinished song in the making, not when he was so close to finishing it.

‘Then I’m gonna stop texting you for now so you can finish it faster. What do you think about that?’

Yoongi could almost feel Hoseok’s words when he read his message. He let a low growl and shook his head, almost as if he thought that Hoseok could see him.

‘You don’t need to. I don’t mind.’

He would’ve loved to say ‘I like texting you’, but that would’ve been sappy and Min Yoongi HATED sappy.

‘You don’t mind, huh?’

Yoongi reread the message a few times and tried to type different answers to see which one could fit better. In the end, though, he deleted all of them because none was good enough.

‘I’ll take the lack of answer as a yes, Mr. Songwriter.’

That was better. That he could answer. For sure.

‘Mr. Songwriter? Really?  
Should I start calling you Mr. Dancer then?’

He ended up going for the sappy vibes. Yoongi could feel his inner self writhing within his body.

‘You can call me anything you want.’

Yoongi burst into laughter when he read that. He wasn’t sure if he liked where this conversation was going. Not his alley.

‘Okay, Mr. Dancer, and would you say about going out for a beer this weekend?’

Well, that wasn’t as smooth as it seemed in his head.

He was usually the kind of person that sent dickpics on the first conversation. This one had been lasting long enough without any for him to not ask for a date already.

Hoseok didn’t give him an answer right away. Yoongi could see how he kept on writing for a long time, probably changing his words every two seconds.

Finally, though, he got an answer.

‘Wednesday night. You choose the place. Sounds good?’

Good would be an understatement for what Yoongi felt right then.

Needless to say, he finished the song that same night.

 

 

 

Namjoon got home that day with a box filled with all the things he had been keeping at work for these past weeks.

He wasn’t mad at the fact that the person he was covering for was finally coming back, but he was not in his best moment. It had been hard saying goodbye to all his kids now that he had finally learned all of their names. He hated it. Goodbyes had never been his forte.

That was one of the reasons why he had been planning on drinking a few beers in front of the TV that night. If only he hadn’t heard the screams that came out of Jackson’s room.

Mark and him were fighting. Again.

Namjoon sighed and went straight to his room, trying to make as little noise as possible so no one would notice him. When Jackson and Mark fought, the best thing was to not be around them because they would find a way to get him involved and make him pick a side.

Namjoon knew. It had happened too many times for him to forget about.

If today was a good night, their screams would probably become moans in less than thirty minutes. If it was a bad night, though, Mark would leave with a loud thump and Jackson would come to his room shortly after, seeking comfort.

He left the box on his desk and sat down on the bed, hiding his face in between his hands, waiting.

A few minutes later, Namjoon heard a very loud scream and then the main door to the apartment closed.

It was definitely going to be a very long night.

 

 

 

They had gone out for dinner that night to celebrate that Jungkook had a job and it had been freezing cold. Even though Seokjin had been wearing a thick coat and a scarf, the moment he got home, he put his comfiest pajamas on and buried himself underneath the covers to see if he could feel his toes again.

He was now checking his social media like he had been doing every night for the past week. It was something that costed him nothing to get used to and he was starting to enjoy it. Instead of fearing the moment he had to open the app, now he was intrigued to see what his matches had to say.

He had blocked a few contacts already because he wasn’t enjoying the conversation with them, but he had been talking to the others regularly. Yesterday, for example, he had been talking to that Yoongi dude from the other day and he seemed intriguing. He was a security guard and also a music producer. Sometimes it was difficult to talk to him, but there was something in the way he wrote that kept Jin waiting for more.

The thing was that Yoongi had, in fact, stopped answering his messages.

The last ones he sent from this morning remained without an answer and Jin didn’t really know why. Was it because he lost interest? Or maybe because he was busy? There was no way for him to now, so he decided to check his other chats.

The next one he checked was that of the other teacher, Namjoon. Although he didn’t talk much, he always had a nice reply to his messages. Today, though, he hadn’t said a word.

Thankfully, Mark’s chat had a few unread messages waiting for him to open.

He was the person who was making this Finder experience more bearable. He was the nicest by far. The kindest, the sweetest and the prettiest too. He was the full package and had Jin wrapped around his finger for sure.

‘I just had this crazy idea…’

Jin face brightened up with a smile when he read that.

‘And this idea is?’

He answered right away, not paying attention to the time.

The other day he had told Taehyung that he didn’t want to seem anxious when he answered too quickly, but Taehyung had told him that he shouldn’t worry about that. They were not teenagers anymore. They were busy and had other things to do. Answering quickly was not bad, and neither was answering slowly.

Mark probably thought the same things because he answered a few seconds later.

‘What do you think about having dinner with me this week?’

Jin almost screamed the moment he saw that message pop up on his screen. Having dinner. WITH MARK.

Would it be too much if he went to Taehyung’s room in the middle of the night to show him this text?

He thought about it a few seconds and decided against it. Taehyung would probably keep him awake all night giving him tips for First dates. Not that he was going to get that much sleep on his own, though.

He reread the message one last time before he typed the answer quickly.

‘I’d love that.’

Right after hitting the send button, Jin threw the phone on the floor and covered his mouth with his pillow to muffle a groan.

He was going on a date. HE HAD A DATE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for today's episode. 
> 
> As you've seen, the main POV has changed a little. It's no longer Namjin-centric, but rather OT10 centric. Don't get me wrong, Namjin are the main pairing for this fic, but the other plots and subplots are getting stronger in my head and I really need to give them a place here.
> 
> Once the full story is written down, I'll probably revise it all and edit it so I can erase or add new fragments whenever possible. For now, though, this is what we have.
> 
> I won't be updating weekly from now on. This summer I have a lot of stuff going on so I'll probably update every two weeks. But don't pay a lot of attention to it, though. Maybe one of these days I get inspired and you get a new episode within the next week. We'll never know.  
> Update 20/10/19 every two weeks... Damn, I had really high expectations back then.
> 
> I hope you're enjoying it so far! 
> 
> Is there something you wanna tell me? Please, feel free to use the comment section or go to my Twitter profile!
> 
> Thank you for reading and see you soon <3


	6. Kings of Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have three things to say about this,” Namjoon gestured him to show his approval. At this point of their lives, he would not be the one to stop Jackson from talking. “First, this dude is HOT. Like hot, hot. Have you seen those shoulders? DAMN,” Jackson pointed that out by showing Namjoon one of the pictures. “Second, I don’t see why he wouldn’t be interested. I’ve told you a million times, Namjoon-ah, you are fucking hot. If I didn’t love you like a brother, I would’ve definitely hit on you. And, third… Yeah?” Jackson stopped when Namjoon raised a hand.
> 
> “You hit on me every time you get drunk, Jackson,” Namjoon pointed that out, just in case Jackson had forgotten about that.
> 
> “Not relevant,” Jackson paid no attention to it. “Anyway. As I was saying, third, I’m gonna get you on a date with Mr. Hot Shoulders and I’m gonna do it right fucking now.”

The wood was starting to feel cold against his skin. He was sitting on the floor, his back against one of the giant mirror walls, legs spread without a care.

Hoseok had finished the previous session ten minutes ago and was now taking a break before the next class started. He was not that tired, but he really needed a few minutes before going back to dancing again. The last session had been pretty hectic. 

He would usually drink a little bit of water while checking the planning for the next hour, but today he had his phone in hand, and was checking his messages. He looked more like a high-schooler than a grown ass man.

‘Beer or wine?’

Hoseok smiled when he saw the question brighten up the screen. 

‘Are you already planning on getting me drunk?’

The three dots appeared on the screen almost instantly and Hoseok waited patiently for an answer. He had never felt this hooked up by a conversation in his life.

Well, he probably had in the past, but not recently. Most of his regular conversations were pretty bland.

‘I’m trying to find a place for tomorrow. C’mon, wine or beer?’

He let a snort when he perceived how anxious Yoongi seemed. For what he had seen, at first he seemed to be the kind of person who didn’t pay that much attention to detail, but now that he had gotten to know him a little more, he could tell that he was very keen on details.

‘Wine. You’re rude.’

Hoseok tried to look offended by using short sentences, joking.

‘I’m always rude.’

He had to cover his mouth with one hand to avoid being too loud when he laughed.

‘I can see. You didn’t even say thank you.  
Mr. Songwriter, you’re really making me question whether I should go out with you tomorrow or not.’

Now he was being dramatic and, boy, he was loving it. Drama made everything funnier.

‘Are you sure I’m the rude one?  
Planning on standing me up for taking into account your opinion.  
Now THAT’S rude.’

Hoseok reread the last messages and couldn’t help it but laugh again. This was beginning to look more like a Dumb and Dumber compilation rather than the chat of a dating app.

‘I could be ruder if you wanted me to.’

Now this seemed more like it. Not that he was worried about the outcome that may come out of his first attempt at on-line dating, though. He downloaded the app for the fun of it, he never expected to be asked out in a date this soon.

‘I hope I can see that tomorrow.’

Rude, but at the same time smooth and confident. There was something about Yoongi that really made him stand out. 

Hoseok had felt captivated by his words since the very beginning and not even his conversations with Seokjin, a cute English teacher with whom he had matched a week ago, was able to make it stop. 

‘Trying to keep me tied, huh?’

There was no answer for a long period —if two minutes were considered long— and Hoseok decided to take advantage of it by standing up. There were ten minutes left until the next class and he knew people would start to show up soon.

God. Five minutes and he didn’t even have any of the props ready. Who was this Yoongi dude and what was he doing to him?

 

 

 

Jin was sitting in one of the armchairs of the living room with two stacks of exams right next to him. 

The oldest students just had an exam that same morning and he wanted to have the marks ready for the next day. The evaluations were still far away, but he knew that the longer it took for him to correct, the lazier he’d become. 

He grunted when he found out that Min had just failed an important exercise because of a dumb mistake. It really annoyed him when these things happened. He hated having to give his students bad grades, especially when it was because of things that could be avoided.

Sighing, Seokjin corrected the next exercises while checking the key and a few minutes later he calculated the final grade. 

She had passed the exam, but he knew she could do better. He wrote a giant “Good job!” near the mark and then put a few annotations on the last page so Min could clearly see what she needed to revise.

Then, he put the exam on top of the pile of corrected exams and extended an arm to reach for the next one. 

It was then that the main door opened, and the voice of his little brother filled the apartment.

“For the zillionth time today, Yugs, I haven’t found an apartment yet. When I find one, you’ll be the first to know, okay?” Seokjin could hear him talk while he was taking off his jacket.

A few seconds later, Jungkook entered the living room and smiled widely at his brother.

“Yes, Yugs. I know. We can talk about it later, okay? C’mon, you’ll be great. You already know that, yeah?” Yugyeom’s voice could be heard muffled against his brother’s ear.

After a few more instants, Jungkook hung up.

“Sorry, hyung. I’ve been trying to hung up on him since I got in the elevator, but…,’ Jungkook never got to end the sentence because Jin shook his head.

“Don’t worry, I understand,” he smiled wide and patted the sofa that was next to him. “Come and take a sit. Tell me all about your new job. I could really use a break,” Jin added, leaving the exam he had in his hands on top of the biggest pile.

Jungkook threw himself on the couch without a care and punched one of the cushions before he put it under his head.

“I’d really love to be the whiny bitch that complains about you using me to take a break, but I’m too tired for that shit,” Jungkook sighed and Jin laughed loudly. His brother was starting to catch on the dramatic aura that ruled the apartment. “Job is good. There’s a lot to do, but I think that’s mostly because I don’t know shit about coffee.”

Jin raised an eyebrow at his brother’s response before replying.

“I don’t mind you cussing but, really, I think I’ve never heard you say that many swear words,” at home, they had never been the kind to cuss.

“Ah, yeah. About that… Sorry,” Jungkook blushed a little when he realized. “My co-workers have a really potty-mouth. I think you’d be amazed by the amount of cussing they can do in one single sentence. I think the rate is even higher than the dad joke ratio in this apartment.”

The eldest sibling tried to look offended when he heard that.

“No one can beat my dad joke ratio, Jungkook. I hope that you take that back soon, or else I’m throwing you out,” he tried to look serious, but it didn’t pay off. 

Jungkook let out a loud snort and hid his face in the cushion for a bit. Jin smiled in response, secretly happy to have his brother home. He was still mad for what he did, but he was enjoying his company a lot.

After a while, Jungkook emerged with a bright smile that could only say one thing: he had an idea.

“Hyung…,” he started sweet-talking Jin, as if his brother didn’t know him already.

“What do you want now? Money? Food? An extra blanket?” Jin ventured, not really sure.

“You know it’s been a long time since we last went to the cinema together…,” Jungkook was pouting while talking, one of his most famous techniques for getting away with everything he wanted.

“Yeah?” Jin raised an eyebrow, although he already knew more or less what was about to happen.

“Can we go to the cinema together tomorrow night? Please? Pretty please?” his eyes looked like two giant lighthouses.

Jin was thinking of answering yes, but then he remembered that he had plans next day.

Shit.

“I… I can’t tomorrow. What about Thursday?” he tried to not give any explanations, but Jungkook noticed that there was something off right away. They had been living together since birth, at this point he knew all about his tricks too.

“Why not? Do you have plans already? What is it? Can you tell me? Is it something from work?” was Jungkook bombarding him with questions so Jin would get tired and answer right away? Definitely.

“I have a date. We can go together on Thursday, yeah? And we can talk to Jimin and Taehy…,” Jungkook cut him before finishing. Jin had tried to use the same technique as Jungkook by dropping a lot of information at once, but it didn’t work out.

“YOU HAVE A DATE AND YOU WERE NOT PLANNING ON TELLING ME?”

Oh, God, NO. Jin was not ready to talk about his date and the whole Finder thing.

Hell no.

No way in hell.

No.

“I’m meeting a dude I met on Finder”

Fucking hell. Jungkook’s potty mouth was getting to him too.

Fuck.

 

 

 

The living room was a mess. There were empty Kleenex boxes everywhere, some leftover food containers stored in a box, pillows everywhere and used napkins on the coffee table. 

Jackson was covered in blankets with only his head and hands out. He was holding a big spoon with a hand and a box of ice cream with the other. His face was looking puffy and his eyes were wet and red. 

Goblin was playing on the TV. Jackson had probably seen it at least a dozen times yet he still cried every damn time. Namjoon knew it for sure. They had always watched the show together, and that day was no exception. He was now sitting by his side, feet on the sofa, face resting on one hand. 

“Do you want…,” Jackson sniffled. “Do you want some ice cream, Namjoon-ah?” he showed it to him, but Namjoon said no almost instantly.

“You know I hate mint chocolate. The only reason that thing is in here is because I know you like it,” if it were for him, that box would’ve never entered the apartment.

“Namjoon-ah,” Jackson sobbed while looking at Namjoon with bright eyes.

Namjoon turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised.

“You know you’re the only man in my life that truly deserves to be alive?” he spurted right before scooping a spoonful of ice cream inside his mouth.

Namjoon laughed, shaking his head softly. Jackson was in transition from stage one to stage two on his post-breakup grieve. 

“Don’t lie, Jackson,” he added softly, waiting for the comeback. He loved teasing Jackson.

“I guess you don’t deserve rights either,” he concluded with a very deep sigh. Then, he left the ice cream box on the coffee table and wrapped himself better with the blanket.

Namjoon shook his head and continued to watch the TV, already knowing the ending to the episode. 

A few minutes later, he decided to grab his phone and check his chats from Finder.

Jackson turned to him with furrowed brows and waited for an explanation that never came. Namjoon had never been the kind of guy that paid more attention to his phone than to the screen when watching a series. For this reason, Jackson coughed a little. 

At first, it was something casual and Namjoon didn’t pay attention to it, but after a while it became too obvious to be avoided.

“What do you want, Jackson?” Namjoon’s voice sounded tired.

“Who are you talking to?” he was not crying anymore, and his eyes were now filled with curiosity. 

Namjoon raised an eyebrow and looked at Jackson for a while without adding nothing. Jackson’s look, though, got more inquisitive by the second.

“Someone I met,” Namjoon tried to avoid saying it out loud, although he knew he was not gonna be able to leave the living room until he told the whole story to Jackson.

“Where?” if something could make Jackson forget about his latest breakup with Mark, it was the smell of gossip.

“Finder,” Namjoon finally added, showing him the app from afar.

Jackson’s eyes widened the moment he saw the image and he threw the blanket away to get closer to Namjoon.

“I thought I had taught you better than this! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could’ve helped you!” he looked deceived, his lips curled in a giant pout.

Namjoon huffed, already tired.

“Because I knew you’d want to help me,” his words seemed kind of harsh and Jackson took them personally. 

He moved away and sat on the opposite side of the sofa, deeply offended. 

“So, I, being the good friend that I am, offer you help to get laid and you turn it down,” his arms were crossed over his chest and he looked disappointed. “I can’t trust no one in this damn city. I’m gonna go back home and leave you all. First it was Mark, now it’s you… Next thing I know, my boss is talking shit about me behind my back!” 

Namjoon tried his best not to laugh out loud.

“Jackson…,” he added after a few minutes.

“What,” he answered roughly.

“You don’t have a boss.”

“Fuck you, Namjoon,” he gave him the eye and got up from the couch. “I think I’m gonna pack my stuff and go back home for the weekend. At least someone will understand me th…”

Namjoon didn’t let him finish the sentence because he knew it could only get worse from now on. Jackson needed someone to stop him when he started going too far.

“Okaaaaaaaaaaay,” he elongated the vowel to make it more evident. “You can help me. Look, there’s this…”

Jackson ran towards the sofa again and threw himself on top of Namjoon, kissing his cheeks like crazy.

“I knew you would never deceive me. I love you, Namjoon-ah. You’re the only man that deserves rights,” he was talking big words and making it look more decent that it was, but the reality was that the moment he fell on top of Namjoon, he grabbed his phone and he was already checking the chats.

“You’re a brat,” Namjoon added, a smile on his face.

“Shut up, bitch.”

 

 

 

Jimin was cuddled up against Taemin’s side on the sofa, his chin resting on his boyfriend’s shoulder. Taehyung was by his side, leaning against Jimin and hugging a pillow. Jin was still sitting on the same armchair from a few hours ago because no one had allowed him to stand up. 

Jungkook had started bombarding him with questions and when Jimin, Taehyung and Taemin got home, they joined the younger in his interrogation. 

Jungkook was surprised that Taehyung already knew everything about it, but Jimin had already been suspecting that they had some dirty business going on. 

Taemin wasn’t saying much, he was just playing with Jimin’s hair, caressing it softly and listening with a smile on his face.

Jin was stressed. That is, more stressed than usual. 

He had a date the next day, he had half a dozen people talking to him on Finder and he had a shit ton of exams to correct. If work didn’t kill him, the stress caused by that damn app would definitely do that.

“So, which one of them all is the lucky bastard that’s taking you out on a date?” Taehyung leaned against Jin, putting his elbows on the armrest of the armchair as he rested his head in between his hands.

“Mark,” he added, not wanting to give away more information.

“I knew it!” Taehyung got up from the sofa jumping.

“You always know everything,” Jin rolled his eyes and grabbed his phone to check his chats.

The others looked at him with curious eyes, waiting for him to tell them something more.

“Okay, get up and come here. I’ll show you,” Jin made a gesture with his hands and in less than thirty seconds everyone was cuddled up against him, looking at the small screen in his hand.

“Did you get more matches?” Taehyung asked again, curious. He wanted to know everything about the app since he was the only one that knew how it worked.

“No,” his words sounded bold. “I’m not gonna check more people up. I have enough with the matches I already have.”

“You’re no fun,” Taehyung pouted and then sighed. 

“At least I tried, okay?” Jin opened his chats and the names of the last people that said something appeared on the screen.

“Hyung, I can’t believe you did it,” Jimin finally talked. “I never thought you’d do it. You never follow Taehyungie’s advice.” 

Taehyung gave a strong nod to Jimin, showing him his approval. He had been just as surprised at him when he discovered the whole thing.

“I… It’s just an app, okay? I’m not looking for anything. It’s just…” he looked up at all the people around him and saw his little brother staring at him with his eyes open and full concentration on his face. “I just wanted to give it a try. I’m not planning on doing anything other than going out for dinner.”

“Sure, Jan,” Taehyung said in a low voice and Jimin elbowed him with a smile on his lips.

“Cut the shit or I’m locking you up for the rest of the night,” Jin gave Taehyung one last warning, although he was not serious.

“Fiiine, I’ll stop,” Taehyung added a boxy smile on his lips. Jungkook had been staring at him every once in a while and it was right then that their eyes meet. Taehyung looked in another direction, though, before continuing. “Let’s see what you have there.”

 

 

 

“Namjoon-ah, I can’t believe you’ve been using this app for MONTHS and you haven’t told me anything about it. I’m OFFENDED,” Jackson looked offended. “Am I not your best friend or what? You shouldn’t exclude me like this. You know I’m here to help you, and if I have to help you get laid, fuck yes I’m doing that. Are you listening?”

Namjoon sighed by his side, staring and his phone that was still in Jackson’s hands.

“I asked you a question. Are you or are you not, Kim Namjoon?” Jackson’s voice was more serious then.

“I am, Jackson,” if someone had asked Namjoon to what he had agreed, he wouldn’t have been able to give a proper answer.

“That’s my best friend,” Jackson smiled widely and went back to the app. “You don’t have that many people here. I thought you’d have like a thousand matches, but it’s barely twenty. What happens?”

Namjoon raised his can of beer and took a few sips before talking.

“I don’t swipe right on everyone. I just talk to people that I find interesting,” it was very simple. Namjoon’s logic, in that case, was not that complicated.

“And what criteria do you apply? How does someone who wants to ask you on a date have to be like?” Jackson raised both his eyebrows, curious.

“I don’t know,” the answer was clear. There was not an established planning. “I just check the profile and if there’s something that calls my attention, I swipe right.”

“Boring,” Jackson had always been the kind of person who always told the truth, one of the reasons why Mark and him ended up fighting almost daily. “Anyone in particular that I can check?”

Namjoon laughed at Jackson’s stubbornness and nodded.

“Here, look,” he got closer to Jackson and went to one conversation in particular to show him a profile. “This one. But he doesn’t talk much. I guess he’s not that interested.”

Jackson checked the profile one time, then looked at Namjoon from head to toes. He went back to checking the dude’s profile and checked Namjoon again. He repeated that a few times, until he finally reached a conclusion.

“I have three things to say about this,” Namjoon gestured him to show his approval. At this point of their lives, he would not be the one to stop Jackson from talking. “First, this dude is HOT. Like hot, hot. Have you seen those shoulders? DAMN,” Jackson pointed that out by showing Namjoon one of the pictures. “Second, I don’t see why he wouldn’t be interested. I’ve told you a million times, Namjoon-ah, you are fucking hot. If I didn’t love you like a brother, I would’ve definitely hit on you. And, third… Yeah?” Jackson stopped when Namjoon raised a hand.

“You hit on me every time you get drunk, Jackson,” Namjoon pointed that out, just in case Jackson had forgotten about that.

“Not relevant,” Jackson paid no attention to it. “Anyway. As I was saying, third, I’m gonna get you on a date with Mr. Hot Shoulders and I’m gonna do it right fucking now.”

Namjoon sighed in disagreement, but one look from Jackson made him change his mind. He was going to let him do whatever he wanted. 

He already knew nothing good was gonna come out of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! I'm finally back with a new episode!
> 
> I'm sorry it took so long, I haven't had that much free time lately. I've been travelling, visiting friends, going around and stuff like that. Summer's always kind of busy. But, anyways, here you have the episode! This one is basically all of them being crackheads and annoying each other. I had a lot of fun writing it! The more I write, the more I get to love them. 
> 
> What are you thinking so far? Is there something you want to know? Anything? I'll answer to any of your questions gladly.
> 
> That's it for today. Have a nice week! I hope to post another chapter soon uwu


	7. Dating is not easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You mean that this is something that happens regularly?” Jin’s eyes widened when he said that out loud.
> 
> “Pretty much,” Namjoon pushed his hair back with one hand when saying that.
> 
> “God, why can’t I have good things?” Jin was starting to get restless to the point he didn’t even care that Namjoon was as much of a stranger as Mark was a few hours ago. “I shouldn’t have ever downloaded that damn app. I’m… Look, I have nothing against you, but this is not really and ideal situation. I really need to get going. I was gonna ask for a taxi to get me home, but I think I’m going for a walk. I’m…” he looked everywhere, trying to find an answer to all the questions that were appearing in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> Chapter seven is finally here and it comes with a new recommendation! I played this [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZwi9SHgzGY) a lot while writing this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

The sturdy beat of an infamous song that had been popular over a decade ago could be heard even from outside the place. It was an old industrial building with lots of windows, weird light arrangements and tables made out of wine barrels. Jackson’s choice, indeed. 

He had been insisting upon taking Namjoon out for a drink and Namjoon had just given in. The place was not Namjoon’s cup of tea, but he was not planning on complaining about it. The amount of beer on the menu made up for all the noise surrounding them. Jackson had chosen the place wisely.

“I bet that dude has his head so far up his own ass he thinks he can just ignore people because he has great shoulders,” Jackson voice took Namjoon out of his dreams. He was rambling, had been since the moment they got there. 

Last night, Jackson’s attempts at getting a date with Mr. Hot Shoulders failed miserably, basically because the dude didn’t even bother to reply. Namjoon hadn’t been worried at all because he was used to it, but Jackson had taken it personally, probably because he was projecting his own frustration onto this. 

“It’s okay. I don’t really care. It’s not as if I had thought it would work out,” Namjoon commented, taking a sip of his beer very calmly. 

Calm didn’t last long, though, because Jackson hit the table with one hand and some of the people that were seating nearby turned around to stare at him.

“Bull-shit. That’s bullshit, Namjoon-ah,” he spit out, looking mad as hell. “These thoughts shouldn’t even be in your mind. Why would anyone ignore you? Huh? I already told you a-fucking-thousand times that you could have anyone you wanted in your bed,” he drank half his beer in one go and then cleaned his lips with the back of his own hand. “That fucking Teacher McFuckingShoulders should be honored to have you talk to him. I’m so tired of people just ignoring other people’s feelings and… Arg,” he brushed his hair back with his own hand and sighed.

“Jackson,” Namjoon started, getting a little closer to him. “It really is okay. It’s not as if I know the dude or anything. It’s just a dating app. Ignoring someone is the easiest way of saying that you’re not interested and not being rude at the same time. It has happened a few times already. You know dating apps can be a pain in the ass sometimes. It really is okay, yeah?”

Jackson didn’t look pleased at all, so he drank the other half of beer that was still in his glass.

“Bullshit,” he replied, but this time he didn’t fire back.

“And thank you for trying, huh?” Namjoon had a comforting smile on his face, which made his dimples show up on full display. “Not that many people would do that for a friend. Thank you. I’m happy to have you here too,” they had been best friends since college, being able to still be together years later was a blessing.

“You really know how to talk me through my anger issues, huh?” Jackson was the one laughing now, all puffed down. He was genuinely smiling now, no anger or mischievous plans behind.

“Someone has to, huh?” Namjoon took another sip of his beer and then asked the waiter to bring two more. “Which leads me to ask you about your latest fight with Mark.”

Jackson stiffened and his face looked like he had seen the devil himself.

“C’mon. I can imagine what it was, but I really need you to tell me the full story so I can help you through it,” Namjoon had been doing this for so long, he was already used to dealing with Jackson and Mark’s issues.

“I don’t know how you do it, but you always end up loosening my tongue,” Jackson hissed before continuing. “You should try to do it the proper way some day, you know?” and that was what brought that naughty smile back to his face.

“Jackson!” Namjoon laughed it off, not really paying attention to it. His roommate had been doing this since the first week they meet.

“You know I’m joking,” he added, casually winking right before dipping into the main topic of discussion: that son of a bitch he used to call boyfriend. Mark Tuan.

 

 

 

Slim, bony fingers wrapped the neck of the wine bottle and took it out of the ice bucket. 

With expertise, Yoongi held it with the right hand and put the bottle horizontally to fill Hoseok’s glass first. Then, he poured a generous amount of wine in his own and left the bottle back in the bucket.

“Do you pull the professional waiter card on everyone you go out with?” Hoseok inquired, playfully. 

It had been almost half an hour since they had meet face to face and everything was going smoothly. If he were to judge, Hoseok would say that it felt more like meeting an old friend rather than going on a first date with a stranger.

“I used to work at a five-star restaurant,” Yoongi explained carelessly. “I guess I do it out of experience rather than to show off.”

Hoseok laughed, holding his glass with his hand to examine the content. Then, he swirled the wine inside carelessly and smelled it, trying to look professional too.

“You, on the other hand, have no idea about what you’re doing, right?” there was a kind smile starting to appear on his eyes as he spoke.

“Could you tell?” Hoseok added, still smiling. “Isn’t it how it’s done, though?”

Yoongi shook his head, softly closing his eyes right before holding his own glass.

“Do you want me to show you?” he held the glass a little higher, waiting for an answer.

Hoseok agreed, nodding meticulously.

“Okay. First of all, you need to hold your glass like this,” Yoongi put the base of the glass on top of his hand and then held stem with his fingers.

After a few seconds of examining the gesture, Hoseok imitated him, holding the stem with his fingers, a little clumsily.

“Like… This?” he was not feeling really confident about what he had just done, but Yoongi nodded.

“Not bad. I’m sure you’ll improve soon. At least that’s far better than what you did before,” he dissed him, hiding a smirk behind his glass.

“Hey! Not everyone is an expert like you,” Hoseok tried to look mad, but the eyes gave him away.

They both laughed, feeling comfortable and at ease.

“Now it’s time for the fancy shit you were trying to do earlier,” Yoongi held his glass right in front of his eyes and swirled the content carefully, approaching his nose to smell the aroma. “You have to smell while swirling, because the movement oxygenates the wine and makes all the flavors pop.”

Hoseok nodded energetically and imitated Yoongi’s gestures awkwardly. He had never thought it would be so complicated. Yoongi, though, didn’t really care about that. He was more focused on the fact that Hoseok was really putting some effort into it.

“What do you smell?” he asked after a few seconds, expectant.

“It’s… Uh…” Hoseok swirled the content again, trying to take in all he could. “It smells like wine. White wine. It don’t know. Sweet?”

Yoongi snorted at the comment but didn’t look disappointed. Getting to appreciate the qualities of wine was difficult.

“Fruity. It should smell like fruit. Maybe pear or pineapple?” he wasn’t really sure about the last one, but pear was definitely there. “And if you pay close attention to it, you can even smell the wood of the barrel it was in.”

Hoseok’s eyes widened by the second, completely impressed. He wasn’t really expecting such a deep analysis from a simple glass of wine.

“Fuck. You really know what you’re doing, huh?” he held the glass a little higher and looked at the content with his eyes completely open.

“It’s practice. The maître at the restaurant I worked was pretty good at it and taught me well,” he wouldn’t probably know shit about wine if it wasn’t for that dude. “Anyway. How about we try and analyze the taste? I’m sure it will be easier. Yeah?”

He raised his glass and Hoseok moved his own forward to toast. Then, they both tasted the wine. Hoseok swallowed it a little too early, but Yoongi had it in his mouth for a few seconds right before getting it down.

“So, tell me everything you can get out of this,” he left the glass on the table and stared at Hoseok, curious.

“Uh…” he was getting a little nervous because it was difficult. “It’s sweet and… And when you swallow it, it feels even sweeter than before.”

Yoongi raised his eyebrows, surprised.

“Not bad, not bad at all. It really has a very special aftertaste that contrasts with everything else,” the change was quite drastic, but someone that had not paid enough attention wouldn’t have been able to notice that. “It has a very volatile taste. It changes as you move it around your mouth. It feels different on every part of your tongue.”

Hoseok was astonished by the comment. How could someone make that much out of a simple glass of wine?

“God. I chose wine instead of beer because I wanted to be fancy, but damn,” he drank some more wine, this time more carelessly, although he stopped for a few seconds to stare at the glass before continuing. “You really know shit. I didn’t think you would bring me to a place like this. It’s… Holy shit. It’s great. And we haven’t even started eating.”

“Not even an hour and I’ve impressed you already?” there was something about the way his voice sounded that made Hoseok laugh out loud. 

An old couple sitting nearby stared at them and shook their heads, scandalized. Hoseok covered his mouth with one hand, but Yoongi extended his own hand to grab Hoseok’s and take it away.

“Don’t cover your mouth. I like the way you smile.”

And with that comment, Hoseok’s cheeks became bright red. 

Yoongi had to look away for a few seconds before thinking over what he had done, although he didn’t regret it at all.

 

 

 

Seokjin looked at his watch for the nth time that day and sighed when he found out it was still early. Hours didn’t seem to go by, hadn’t been since he woke up that morning.

He took his phone out of one of the pockets of his jacket and unlocked it to check his chats.

Taehyung had said that Jungkook and him were ordering pizza for the night and they were wondering if Jimin wanted to join them. Since it was Wednesday, though, Taemin and him were out for date night, so the two youngest roommates were to have dinner alone.

Jin read the messages carefully and laughed at the amount of emojis Taehyung used when Jimin said that date night thing. Taehyung was never gonna change.

Then, he checked Mark’s chat, but he was not on line and he had not read the message he had sent a few minutes ago. 

Taehyung had said that first dates were not always the best, so he shouldn’t have high expectations for it. The only problem here was that since Jin hadn’t been in a date in years, he didn’t even know what was considered no expectations.

He was starting to get anxious. It was not late, but there were not that many minutes left until the meeting hour and he was starting to fear the worst.

Putting the phone back in his pocket, he checked the people around him. There were young couples holding hands everywhere, families with little kids and elderly couples talking casually. Weirdly enough, everyone seemed to be paired up with someone. Everyone but him. He was there, staring on his own while waiting for his date. It was somewhat funny, because until that day, he had never paid attention to the amount of couples one could see on the streets. Maybe he was thinking there were a lot because he was specially focusing on them now. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. 

Maybe neither, probably both. 

Thankfully, he didn’t have more time to think about it because someone touched his shoulder from behind. 

There. There he was, right in front of him. Mark, his first date in almost a decade.

Holy fuck. 

His legs felt wobbly, almost as if they couldn’t hold up all his weight.

“Jin, right?” there was a tiny smile on his lips. “I hope you haven’t been waiting for too long.”

Seokjin shook his head. His mind was completely blank at the moment. It almost seemed like he had forgotten how to speak.

“I… I just got here, d-don’t worry,” he stuttered a little and had to swallow after speaking because his throat was getting dry.

Was he fifteen years old again or what?

“I’m glad to hear that. It’s very nice to meet you, Jin. I’m Mark,” he put a hand on his chest as he spoke, as if Seokjin really needed to know his name at this point.

Damn. This was gonna be harder than he expected.

“Nice to meet you too,” he felt like a jerk, especially after having talked to him for hours on Finder. “I got here early because I don’t usually come around this neighborhood,” there was a half an hour walk from his house to this place, so he didn’t really know that much about the area. 

“Really? You should’ve told me that! I forgot to ask if the place worked for you, I’m sorry,” he seemed like he really meant his words, something that made Jin smile.

“No, I’m serious, don’t worry. If I get too tired I’ll call for a taxi and that’s it,” although he thought that walking back home would really help clear his mind after the night. He needed to clear his mind right now. “Should we get going to the restaurant?”

“Ah, yes!” Mark’s features softened when he understood that there was no burden. “It’s right here. Come, let’s get inside. It’s freezing here.”

Jin nodded and followed him suit, walking to a nearby street filled with tiny cute restaurants.

 

 

 

“MOVE TO THE RIGHT. RIGHT. I FUCKING SAID RIGHT!!!”

“BUT LEFT FEELS BETTER. SEE? LEFT IS THE KEY”

“GO TO YOUR FUCKING RIGHT OR WE’LL BE DEAD IN LESS THAN A MINUTE!”

“WAIT A SEC…”

They were screaming so loud one of their neighbors hit the wall to see if they quieted down a little.

Taehyung’s eyes widened when he realized what was happening and looked in the direction of the noise, completely forgetting about the screen for a few seconds. Jungkook took advantage of the situation and turned right in that moment, something that played against Taehyung, because Jungkook hit his character inside the game.

“Jungkook, I think we should…” he never got to finish the sentence because when he looked at the screen he saw what Jungkook had done. “YOU’RE CHEATING. FUCK YOU! I’M NEVER PLAYING AGAINST YOU. NEVER AGAIN.”

He knitted his brows and threw the remote on the sofa, completely done with the game.

“I’m out. That’s it. You don’t know how to follow the rules. I’m not playing anymore,” Taehyung shook his head and sat on his hands.

“Oh, please. It was just a game. C’mon, Taehyung-hyung,” Jungkook was talking in a pout, seemingly hurt.

“Until you learn how to play fairly, I rest my case,” the elder was sure about his words, and so he leaned forward and took the TV remote to close the game and open his Netflix account.

“Okay… I’m sorry, hyung. It got carried away,” Jungkook put his remote aside and sat down, resting his back against the sofa.

“I could see,” Taehyung’s expression softened. He was not actually mad, he was just a great actor. Usually, he was the first one cheating when playing against other people. “In any case, we’ve been playing for two hours straight. I think we should take a break.”

“It’s already been two hours?” Jungkook’s eyes grew even bigger when he realized that. “Wow. Time went by really fast, I thought it had only been half an hour,” not that playing for two hours was weird for him, though. He had been going at it for far longer in college.

“Times flies when you’re having fun,” there was a light smile in Taehyung’s lips when he said that out loud. “Anyways, is there something you wanna watch tonight?”

Jungkook looked at Taehyung and then checked the screen.

“Is that the Notebook?” Jungkook almost screamed when he saw the cover appear on the screen.

“I guess so, yes. What, do you like it?” Taehyung was confused, not because it was a bad movie, but because he had not expected Jungkook to like it.

“Of course I fucking like it,” he seemed offended. “Ryan Gosling AND Rachel McAdams together in a movie,” he said it as if that was enough reason for them to watch the movie. His voice sounded very matter-of-factly.

Taehyung’s expression softened and he laughed at Jungkook’s knitted brows.

“I should’ve known you’d be a sucker for romcoms like your brother,” he added in a very low voice, something that made Jungkook soften a little.

 

 

 

A lot of people would be worried by the amount of alcohol that both Jackson and Namjoon could down in one night. There were so many empty bottles on the table, the waiter had had to take some of them away in order to fit the new ones.

The thing was that when they were in college, they used to do this regularly. At first, they could only down a couple beers each, but after a few years of practice, it had gotten to this level of tolerance and now it was part of their routine.

Nonetheless, Namjoon had stayed a little behind because since the moment he started working, he had stopped getting drunk on weekdays. Jackson, on the other hand, had not even considered it. So, when Namjoon decided it was time for him to stop, Jackson decided it was the perfect momento to order a few shots. 

“You know, Namjoon-ah?” he said for the nth time that night after downing the first shot.

“What is it now, Jackson?” not that he was tired of listening to him complaining, but he was indeed tired of listening to his complaints.

“This time I’m saying it for real. I’m never getting back together with Mark. Never. AGAIN,” Jackson said that last word a little too loud and some people turned around to look at him. Not that that’s strange. Jackson was used to being the center of attention wherever he went.

“You’ve been saying that since you broke up for the first time, Jackson,” Namjoon pointed out, taking one last sip of his almost empty bottle of beer. “You’re the most unreliable person in town, especially when you drink,” and he could scientifically prove that.

“This time it’s for real, Namjoon-ah. I can feel it in here,” he pointed at his heart and hit his own chest with one hand to give more meaning to his words. “This is Markson’s last break up.”

Namjoon laughed, not believing a word of it.

“I give it one month. In one month, we’ll be back here and you’ll be talking about everything that makes Mark Tuan your perfect match,” been there, done that. Several times since last year.

“I said I won’t and I stand by my words,” Jackson was speaking from his drunken heart right now. He looked very solemn. “He’s a lying rat. I’m sure he’s been seeing someone else behind my back for months now. You know I caught him texting and he wouldn’t show me the conversation nor tell me who it was?”

Namjoon shook his head energetically. Typical Jackson Wang behavior, and no, he was not approving that.

“He can talk to whoever he wants, Jackson. He doesn’t have to show you his phone. That’s fucking toxic, man,” one of the reasons why Mark had probably decided to back off one more time. It was not that Mark was the perfect boyfriend either, but Namjoon knew that Jackson had some problems that needed to be solved in order to make his relationships work. “If you trust him, you shouldn’t be worried about that. You smile at your phone all day long and I don’t question you for that. And you shouldn’t snoop around either. He can be meeting friends too. Why do you always think the worst?”

Jackson sighed and downed two shots in less than a minute. 

“Can you tell me one more time why aren’t we dating?” he conclusively questioned.

“Because we wouldn’t work out,” Namjoon answered right away, without hesitation. Jackson and him were great friends, but that was it. A romantic relationship between them would fuck them up real bad. “We’ve discussed it. We look for different things in a relationship. You’re my best friends and I don’t need anything more.”

Some tears started to cloud Jackson’s eyes and he had to dry them off with the back of his hand.

“God. You’re so hard to get, Namjoon,” he complained. “You’re like perfect boyfriend material. Intelligent, sweet, caring and incredibly fucking hot. God,” it looked like he felt his words real deep because his whole body trembled with every sound. “I wish someday you would choke me with those thighs of yours.”

Namjoon spilled the beer he had in his mouth when he heard Jackson and started coughing. This one caught him empty handed.

“JACKSON,” he said a little too loud before apologizing to the people nearby.

“What? It’s the truth. We should totally hook up some day,” one more shot down and there was only one more left.

“We kissed. Didn’t work out,” Namjoon tried to remind him of that one time but Jackson didn’t even let him stop.

“During freshman year. That was like ages ago, Namjoon. We barely knew each other, for fuck’s sake,” he shook his head.

One thing about Jackson Wang was that he could keep up a perfect façade when being pissed drunk. And now he was really proving his skills. Namjoon knew that he was talking bullshit, but at the same time his words seemed so convincing it was hard to believe it was, indeed, bullshit.

“I said no and that’s it. I don’t wanna fuck up the only good thing that I have,” Namjoon responded without hesitation.

And then, Jackson started sobbing.

“Our friendship is the best thing that’s ever happened to you?” he cried, his eyes filled with emotion. He was definitely drunk of his ass. “Namjoon, I’m never getting over you.”

God, here he was again.

 

 

 

After a few glasses of wine, his cheeks had turned bright red. He knew by heart the amount of alcohol that he could drink in one go, but that night he had decided to go a little bit over the limit to please his partner. 

The food was good, the alcohol was fine and the company was great. Denying another glass of wine would have been a mistake.

“Are you okay?” Yoongi asked the moment he realized there was something wrong with Hoseok. His smile was not as bright as at the beginning of the night and he was taking a little bit longer to answer his questions.

“Yes, yes. I’m good,” he answered, making gestures with his hands to downplay it. “I just… I think I need to go out for a bit. Would you mind if…?”

“I’ll go with you,” Yoongi gave Hoseok no option. “We can pay now and go out for walk. Would you be okay with that?”

Hoseok started to nod, but stopped the moment he realized that that wasn’t helping him at all. No quick movements or he was gonna end the night visiting a public restroom to get all that great wine out of his system.

“It’s a great idea. Yes,” he decided to reply, gesturing the waiter to ask for the bill.

It didn’t take long for them to pay. With their credit cards, it was done in less than a minute.

After that, they didn’t talk much, which made Yoongi worried. He had his eyes fixated on Hoseok and saw that he was struggling to get up from the chair. For this reason, Yoongi approached him and offered his arm.

“Th-thank you,” Hoseok greeted, surprised. He accepted his offer and got up slowly, trying to avoid sickness. 

God, what a terrible first date.

“You don’t need to thank me, c’mon,” Yoongi tried to seem unbothered, but he clearly wasn’t. He was, indeed, very worried.

“You’re too gentle,” Hoseok complimented Yoongi almost unconsciously.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Yoongi’s knitted brows gave away his worry. He was not used to hearing people calling him gentle. They usually said he was cold and distant, not gentle.

“I am,” Hoseok seemed confident saying that, but Yoongi choose not to believe that. Gentle was not an adjective that people associated him with. “Look, I can…” Hoseok tried to show him that he could go on his own, but Yoongi had to help him to the main door.

“Yeah,” he was clearly buying none of that. “That’s a no from me. I’ll walk you home, yeah? Or do you prefer to call a taxi?” Yoongi grabbed his phone and started dialing the number.

“Walk,” Hoseok said, making Yoongi frown. “I’d prefer to walk, really. I think walking will do me good,” he really needed that fresh air to wake himself up.

“Okay. We’ll walk,” Yoongi wasn’t gonna leave Hoseok on his own right now. He was not an asshole. “Where do we have to go?” he put his phone back in his pocket and waited for instructions.

“It’s that way…” the dancer explained, and so they started walking to his apartment.

 

 

 

Dinner had been great. The food was tasty, the place was nice and Mark’s company was something he could have never dreamed of. He was sweet, caring and charming, and all that combined with that smug smile of his was making Jin feel like a teenager again. 

He couldn’t believe it had been that easy. A few days on that lame -or maybe not that lame- dating app, a few chats and here he was, having the best first date of his life. Maybe he should have followed Taehyung’s advice earlier.

“I don’t wanna be rude,” Mark started, making Jin come back to reality. 

Fuck. 

He had not been paying attention to anything he had been saying for a while now, too focused on his beautiful features and the soothing tone of his voice.

“Rude?” Jin tried to make it seem like he was listening, to see if he could get away with it.

“I mean, it’s not that late, but I really think the waiter wants us gone. He’s been rearranging stuff for a long time and we’re one of the last clients here tonight. Would…” he stopped, biting his lower lip 

Jin was definitely feeling like a fucking teenager again. As if he hadn’t had enough with all the kids he was having to deal with at work, now he was becoming one himself. 

“Would you like to go out for a drink? I know a place nearby that I’d love to try with you,” Mark questioned him, his eyes bright.

“Of course,” Jin said without hesitation. Was he sounding a little too anxious? Fuck that. Taehyung said that there was nothing as ‘too anxious’ when it came to dating apps and dating apps dates. “I’d love that. It’s still too early to go home.”

“Great,” Mark added, his smile widening. “I’ll ask for the check and then we can leave.”

Jin nodded in agreement and started to prepare his things.

He was never gonna question Taehyung’s advice never again.

Well, maybe sometimes, but not when referring to dating. 

 

 

 

The corridor was filled with muffled noises and giggles that couldn’t be contained as someone tried to open the door of the apartment. 

It was late at night and most neighbors were probably asleep now. Well, the neighbors and probably his roommates too. That’s why Jimin pressed a finger to Taemin’s lips and asked him to be quiet for a bit when he finally managed to open the door. 

They took their shoes silently, leaving them by the entrance. Then, they crossed the living room and found out that the TV was on, but that there was nothing on the screen other than an ‘Are you still there?’ text from Netflix. 

When they checked the sofa, they found out that there were not one but two people sleeping there. The sofa had been Jungkook’s bed since he came to the apartment, but someone else had joined him that day, and that someone was Taehyung. He had his head against Jungkook’s shoulder, and they were both sleeping carelessly. 

Jimin turned to Taemin and smiled at him. He returned the gesture and wrapped an arm around his shoulder as they disappeared down the hallway without making a sound.

Once the door to Jimin’s room was closed behind them, though, Taemin pressed Jimin against it and kissed his boyfriend’s jaw.

“Wait, wait. Let me…” Jimin started saying in between giggles. “Let me take off the jacket, Taemin. C’mon!”

Taemin, though, didn’t pay attention to any of Jimin’s words as he continued pressing kisses to his skin. 

Jimin couldn’t contain his giggles even though he was trying to get serious. He really needed to take off that jacket, it was too hot inside the house.

“I prefer to undress you myself,” Taemin finally added as he caressed Jimin’s sides through his clothes. “The more layers, the more time I can spend worshipping to body,” Taemin had that sweet, well-intentioned smile of his on, which made him look all innocent and harmless, something that Jimin knew was a complete lie.

“And why is that, Taeminnie?” Jimin teased, breathing against his lips.

“Well…” Taemin pecked his lips a few times, tempted to deepen the kiss but controlling himself. “I gotta celebrate that I got myself a fiancé today, right?”

 

 

 

Almost an hour ago Namjoon had faked going to the bathroom to ask the waitress to stop bringing alcohol to their table. He didn’t say that they stopped brining drinks, though, because he knew that Jackson wasn’t gonna stop asking for more until he couldn’t stand on his feet.

For that reason, for the last couple rounds Namjoon had been drinking non-alcoholic beer and Jackson had been trying a wide variety of non-alcoholic shots, even though he knew nothing about it.

“Namjoon-ah, I think I’ve drunk too much,” he stated, pressing the heel of his hand against his eyes.

“Why is that, Jackson?” Namjoon acted surprised, and he somewhat was: Jackson rarely acknowledged his drunkness so easily.

“Because I think I’m seeing your Teacher McShoulders coming through the door,” he pointed in that direction, making Namjoon laugh. 

Considering the state he was in, it was probably that Jackson was clearly making that up. But when he turned around to check the dude on the door, he found out that not only Jackson was right, but that there was someone else beside him: Mark. The same Mark Jackson had been ranting about for the whole night.

Fuck. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. 

FUCK.

This wasn’t gonna end up well. 

He needed to distract Jackson and take him back home before anything bad happened. He needed to pay the bill and leave right away. He didn’t want Jackson to cause another scene in the middle of a crowded pub. There was no need for that. And he was sure there was a way to avoid it, but Jackson didn’t seem to agree with his plan.

Jackson’s eyes widened when he acknowledged Mark by Jin’s side.

“Okay,” he seemed calm, but Namjoon knew that it was fake. “This has to be a joke. Mark is right beside your fucking teacher and he has a hand wrapped around his shoulder. That fucking TRAITOR.” 

The people setting nearby turned around when Jackson raised his voice and Namjoon knew that there was no way he could save this now. At least he had tried to avoid it, right?

“Are you sure?” he tried to fool him, but Jackson didn’t buy it. He got up from his chair and approached Mark, bumping into a few people on the way.

Namjoon followed him suit to see if he could help in any way, but, fuck, this was gonna end up so bad.

“YOU FUCKING LIAR Jackson shouted, not giving a fuck about all the people surrounding them.

Mark froze right in his spot and Jin furrowed his brows, confused.

“You told me there was no one and not even a week after we break up you’re already on a date with someone else?” he pointed at Jin, his eyes starting to get bright. “I knew it. I fucking KNEW IT. I knew I couldn’t trust you anymore. You’re a fucking liar, a fucking traitor.”

Namjoon tried to stop Jackson by putting his hands on his shoulders, but Jackson pushed him away and approached Mark, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

“What? I caught you and now you don’t know how to tell me that I was right since the very beginning?” he looked threatening even though Mark was taller than him.

“You know nothing about it, Jackson. You’re making all this up,” he spoke, making a gesture to Jin, asking him to stay behind. “I did not lie to you. We broke up. I have to right to date other people. I can do whatever the fuck I want now that I’m single again.”

“You…” Jackson hit his chest with his hands. “You’re a piece of trash. Scum. Fucking disgust…” 

Namjoon approached them again and tried to put some distance in between Mark and Jackson, but he got pushed away again.

“Stay away from this, Namjoon. This is something we have to fix by ourselves,” even though he was still mad, his voice was not as rough when speaking to Namjoon. “Leave. Or do whatever you want, but I think I need to talk with him now.”

“I…” Mark turned around to look at Jin. The teacher was looking at them with wide eyes, incredulous. Mark noticed that and looked down for a bit. “I’m sorry for this. I… I had a great time, but I really think I need to fix this.”

Jin nodded, almost out of breath. 

“I… I get it. Don’t worry,” he didn’t know how those words came out of his mouth because he was not able to believe what was happening right before his eyes.

Mark gave him a shy smile before turning around and approaching Jackson again.

“Okay. Let’s talk, but not here. Let’s go somewhere else,” he was way more calm than Jackson, his voice more stable.

Jackson didn’t say anything back. He only nodded, right before following him outside the pub.

 

 

 

The apartment was not that far away from restaurant, but since Hoseok was not in his best condition, it took them at least half an hour to get there in one piece.

“I’m deeply sorry for this,” he added, massaging his temples with one hand. “I can ensure you that I never do this. I don’t… I don’t usually drink that much,” he was against the wall that lead to the apartment building, trying to get some strength back.

“Don’t worry about that,” Yoongi’s voice was sweet and treacky, more than it had been during the rest of the night. “I guess you’ll have to prove it to me another day,” a tiny smile appeared on his lips as he said that.

Hoseok stood there for a bit, not really acknowledging what that meant until a few seconds later.

“You mean you wanna go on a second date with…, with me?” he asked, pointing at himself with one finger, needing reinsurance. He was not at his best tonight.

“If you wanna call it a second date, let it be a second date. I’d prefer not to label it,” he scratched his nape while talking, looking everywhere but Hoseok. “But, yeah. I’d love to see you again. Soon, preferably.” 

Hoseok’s smile widened when he heard that. He was feeling lighter, as if the weight he had been carrying on his shoulders had disappeared all of a sudden.

“That would a pleasure,” he finally added, unbelievably tender.

“Great,” Yoongi was feeling anxious. He was starting to feel something in his stomach and even though he was trying to avoid it, it was getting difficult. “Do you want me to help you to the door?” he offered, but Hoseok shook his head even before he finished asking.

“Nah, you did enough. Thank you for taking me home,” Hoseok commented, getting away from the wall and approaching Yoongi a little bit. “Really. You’re nice.”

Yoongi couldn’t contain himself and started laughing when he heard Hoseok calling him ‘nice’. 

“Okay. I think that’s my cue to leave,” he wasn’t mad at all, though. He was just too happy to believe it. “So… Good night?” 

Hoseok smiled too and decided to walk the last few steps to get to him.

“There’s just one more thing before you leave…” he commented, his eyes staring directly as his lips. 

Hoseok looked at him in the eyes for a few seconds after that and then he bent a little forward, pressing his lips against Yoongi’s. It was nothing but a soft peck, their lips merely touching.

“Thank you,” he repeated again while staring at Yoongi’s astonished expression. “Good night, Mr. Songwriter.”

And then he turned around, disappearing inside his building.

Yoongi was petrified, incapable of moving or saying anything for at least a couple minutes. 

This was nothing like any of the dates he had gone to since getting on the app. This one had been special. He was sure he was never gonna forget about this. But now he really needed to get home because he didn’t want Hoseok to think he was a creep.

 

 

 

The moment Mark turned his back on him, Jin decided it was time to go back home. There was nothing else to do besides complaining, and he was not gonna get all moody and angry in a public place. 

Mad at everything, including himself, he decided to check the taxi app to call for one. He was definitely not walking home right now.

He was about to press the request button when someone patted his shoulder. He turned around, confused, and stared at the dude that was right beside him.

“Yeah?” he was not on the mood for a conversation and it really was showing.

“Oh, sorry. I…,” the guy was kinda awkward. Was he really trying to hit on him right after being dumped by his date? Yeah, he was not having that at all.

“Look, I don’t know you and I’m not really in the mood for anything, so, if you would please let me, I’m just gonna go home,” he sounded way more serious than usual, his expression tight and unapproachable.

“I understand that. I just… Well,” he was very nervous and it was making Jin anxious. “I’m Jackson’s roommate. I mean, you were here with Mark, right? I’m…” he made a gesture with his hand, as if trying to explain the situation. “I’m Mark’s ex-boyfriend’s roommate?”

“Ah,” not that it made the conversation more appealing, but at least the dude maybe knew a little bit more about the situation than him. “Yeah, that. I really didn’t know he had an ex like this, so this whole situation…” 

“Awkward. I know. But Jackson’s a little volatile and…,” he didn’t get to finish his sentence because Jin cut him.

“Only a little?” he shook his head. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my life but nothing like that. That’s some dramatic rom-com material right there, and I’m not up for that shit.”

“Okay, he is full on volatile,” a smile appeared on the estranger’s face and it made the dimples on his cheeks appear. “The thing is, maybe you heard Jackson say something about Teacher McShoulders…?”

Jin raised an eyebrow, confused. He had heard that, yeah, but he had not paid that much attention to it.

“What is it about that?” he wasn’t understanding anything at all.

“Well… I guess you don’t remember me but,” fuck, no. Something clicked in Jin’s mind and then he understood it all.

“You’re the philosophy teacher,” Jin replied instantly. “Nam… Namjoon?”

The dimples on Namjoon’s face got deeper when he smiled.

“That’s me, Namjoon,” he offered him a hand, polite. “I just wanted to check on you, to see if you were okay. I’m used to Mark and Jackson’s crisis, but I guess this is all new to you.”

“You mean that this is something that happens regularly?” Jin’s eyes widened when he said that out loud.

“Pretty much,” Namjoon pushed his hair back with one hand when saying that.

“God, why can’t I have good things?” Jin was starting to get restless to the point he didn’t even care that Namjoon was as much of a stranger as Mark was a few hours ago. “I shouldn’t have ever downloaded that damn app. I’m… Look, I have nothing against you, but this is not really and ideal situation. I really need to get going. I was gonna ask for a taxi to get me home, but I think I’m going for a walk. I’m…” he looked everywhere, trying to find an answer to all the questions that were appearing in his head.

“I get it. I was just worried. Do you want me you walk you home?” there was worry in his eyes as he spoke, but Jin wasn’t going to show his house to a stranger. He didn’t know anything about Namjoon, and for what he knew, he could be as much of a sociopath as Jackson.

“I can do it by myself, but thank you. I just… Need to leave,” Jin said, buttoning his jacket again. “I’d like to say that it was nice to meet you, but given the situation I’m just gonna say goodnight. And I hope that whatever that happened between both of them is solved.”

“Don’t worry. I get it,” Namjoon seamed a little deceived, but at the same time he looked like he understood it all. “I hope you get home safe, Seokjin-ssi.”

“G-good bye, Namjoon-ssi,” he said right before hitting the streets again.

There was no way in hell he was following Taehyung’s advice EVER AGAIN.  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is by far the longest I've written. 7k words is A LOT! I usually go for 1k-2k chapters, so 7k it's like 3 chapters in one! I guess I'm trying to make up for all the updates I haven't been able to post during the last months.
> 
> Anyways, I really hope that you liked it! Drama has finally started and I can ensure you that I will continue this way for a long time. My dearly beloved Jackson is a bit of a drama king in this fic so please bare with me until he finally gets over this.
> 
> On a different matter, I've decided to join NaNo this year! For this reason, I can't promise I'm gonna be posting a chapter for the next few weeks. The good thing about this, though, is that by December I'll probably start posting a new fic, which is something that I'm quite excited about!
> 
> Have a nice month, everyone. I wish you the best!
> 
>  
> 
> Is there anything that surprised you? Or was it everything that you expected? I'd love to know what you think about it all!
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/greylovestae)


	8. After Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “... ‘n’ he said that he had met the dude through an app and that they were meeting for the first time then,” Jackson took a sip from his bottle and swallowed the cuss word that he had been about to spill. “I just don’t believe it. I know that there’s something that he’s hiding from me, but he doesn’t want to tell me. I’m tired. I just want him to disappear.”
> 
> Namjoon playing with the paper on the beer bottle for a little too long, thoughtful. After a while, though, he turned up to him, his dimples showing even though he was not smiling.
> 
> “Didn’t you say you had agreed on not seeing each other for a while?” He repeated his words carefully, not wanting to piss him off.
> 
> “Yes. We have. We’ve officially broken up and I have him blocked in all the apps on my phone,” Jackson explained, very serious and convinced of what he was saying. “But I just can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve been with him for years, I don’t understand why would he do that to me now!”
> 
> Namjoon pressed his lips together and shook his head a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! 
> 
> It's been a while since the last update, but I'm finally back here. I hope that you enjoy it!
> 
> I wanna thank Cami for helping me with this update! Thank you so much, sweetheart uwu
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. You'll see that I changed the way they text so it easier to read. I'll try to change it in the already posted episodes soon!

It was Friday afternoon and the bell had just rung. The classroom was noisy, all the students packing their bags for the weekend. Jin was turning off the computer and putting away everything he had used, just like he always did.

That week had been rough. The past two days had been especially hard on him and he couldn’t wait until the next day.

That week there was no class on Saturday and it felt like a blessing. He really needed a full weekend break once and for all. If this past week had been hard, the next one was gonna be harder.

He was rearranging some papers from his folder when a student approached his desk. Jin looked at her with a small smile on his lips, trying to not show how tired he really was.

“Sunsaeng-nim, may I ask you a question?” she asked politely, her cheeks a bright red from embarrassment.

“Of course, Min. What can I do to help you?” Jin asked, leaving his papers aside to set his full attention on her.

“I was wondering if you could explain to me the activities you left for next week, sunsaeng-nim,” as she spoke, most of the students were already leaving the class.

In less than a couple minutes, there were only three students left: Min, who was talking to Jin, and Jisu and Jun, who were waiting for her.

“Of course, Min. Do you have the documents with you?” his voice was very sweet, no wonder half the students said he was their favorite teacher.

“Yes, sunsaeng-nim, but they are in my backpack. Do I need to take them out?” her voice trembled a little, but she managed to say everything on one go.

“Don’t worry, Min. I have them too,” he opened the folder he had just closed and brought out the papers. “Here. These four pages. Which one is that you want to talk about?”

Min looked at the papers carefully and pointed at the second page.

“These activities here, sunsaeng-nim. Do we need to prepare this worksheet in class and hand it in before we submit the final assignment or can we send both things at the same time?” she was a little hesitant because uncertainty made her even more nervous than usual.

“Yes, you do. You should finish this worksheet in class on Thursday and hand it to the substitute teacher. You may take a picture of it first, to remember what you wrote, but I need it to be submitted before the final piece of work,” as he spoke, he noticed that Min was nodding softly just to prove that she was listening to his words. “Is that okay?”

“Yes, sunsaeng-nim. Thank you so much for your time,” Min smiled brightly, her eyes growing bigger with the gesture. “I hope that your course goes well, sunsaeng-nim.”

“Thanks to you, Min,” he greeted in response, really grateful. Min was, indeed, one of the sweetest students in the class. If only half the students learned a little bit from her and behaved properly. “Have a nice weekend, Min.”

“Have a nice weekend, sunsaeng-nim,” after saying that, he bowed to Jin and went back to both Jisu and Jun.

The students left the class talking vividly about something Jin was not paying attention to. With the class becoming silent, he focused on the last papers he had on his desk and grabbed everything before leaving.

Once all the lights were off, Jin closed the door with his key and walked towards the teacher’s hall.

He couldn’t wait until he finally got home. He had been dreaming of his bed since he had woken up that day. He really wished he could get straight to bed, but he knew that reality was harsher than that and that it wouldn’t be so easy.

For the last two days, he had been avoiding his roommates in any way possible. He had been going to the gym (something he had not done in weeks), eating out on his own and working at the school or the library until late, but he couldn’t delay it any longer. He needed to face them. The problem was that he feared the moment he had to admit the date had been a failure. How everything had been perfect for dinner, but once they went for a drink, his little illusion had crumbled down like a sandcastle.

Mark turned out to be a liar and it hurt, because he had believed him since the very first minute and he had never been the one to cope well with deception.

He got to the teachers’ room with a deep sigh and left his stuff on his locker. Wouldn’t everything be easier if he could put everything he didn’t want away like that?

 

 

 

“I wanna see it again. C’mon, show it to me, Jiminie,” Taehyung’s insistent voice could be heard all over the place, his excitement visible even to those who were not looking.

Jimin and him were on the sofa sitting next to each other. Taehyung had turned to him, legs crossed and eyes filled with emotion.

“Taehyungie you’ve been asking that same question since yesterday,” he pointed out, giggling. “And I don’t mind, but I can’t stop whatever I am doing every five minutes to show you the ring.”

Taehyung paid no attention to the complaint because the moment Jimin raised his hand, his eyes were already focused on The Ring. He grabbed Jimin’s tiny hind in between his and stared at the band almost with devotion. It was amazing. The design was simple, but elegant and delicate, just like Jimin. It fit him like a glove.

“Taeminie-hyung knows you so well,” he whined in a pout. “I can’t believe my best friend is getting married to his high school sweetheart and I can’t have two consecutive dates with the same dude.”

Jimin couldn’t contain his laughter, shaking his head softly.

“Time will tell, Taehyungie. You can’t rush it,” he put a hand on Taehyung’s head and patted his hair lovingly. “For now, you only need to worry about helping me find the best tuxedo in the whole country.”

Taehyung’s eyes opened up to the announcement, clearly eager.

“Of course I will! You will look splendid, Jiminie,” as he spoke, Taehyung let lose of Jimin’s hand to hug him tightly. “I wish you could marry the right way, like, have it recognized on official documents.”

Jimin hid his head in Taehyung’s neck and closed his eyes carefully, thoughtful. Taemin and he had been talking about that a lot lately.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to do it someday,” his voice was serene and it showed conviction. “For now, I’m glad we get to celebrate it with our friends and family.”

Taehyung hugged him harder and it made Jimin laugh even more.

“My Jiminie is going to be a married man,” Taehyung added with some dramatism.

“Well, that gives you the perfect excuse to prepare me the perfect bachelor party,” Jimin’s eyes focused on Taehyung’s expression as he knew that would be something worth remembering.

He was not wrong. Taehyung not only jumped off the sofa, but he also started jumping all over the living room, filled with excitement.

“Oh my God,” he almost screamed, overwhelmed. “I’m so definitely doing that. I’m gonna prepare the best bachelor party you could ever imagine!”

 

 

 

The sky should be pitch black, but the amount of lights on the streets made it look like some shade of brown. No stars could be seen and it was pretty hard to tell whether it was late night or early morning. Namjoon couldn’t really tell. He had been organizing documents since he had arrived from work and he hadn’t paid any attention to the time.

At this point, it didn’t matter at all. He knew that he had a full weekend ahead and he was planning on making the most out of it. He needed to. Next week was gonna be stressful and the last thing he needed was to get back home on Monday at 10pm and find a gigantic mess on his desk.

With a deep sigh, he put a transparent box filled with papers under the desk and grabbed another one that was empty. This time, though, instead of focusing on papers, he went for the books.

Lately, he had been reading lots of books, but instead of keeping all of them in one place, he had been leaving them all over the apartment. It would have been more logical to have all of them on the bookshelves of his room, but they were full. The box would be enough until he found the time to either buy another shelf or place the books somewhere else.

After collecting a few books from his room, he went to the kitchen to see if there was something there, and it was right then that he heard the main door opening. Jackson was home.

Jackson was home and he was not being loud about it. No big announcement, no laughter, no voice notes being sent or heard. Nothing. Complete silence.

Namjoon was starting to get worried. He had been trying to talk to him since the incident the other night, but it had been impossible. Jackson had been dead silent about it, going straight to his room without even noticing Namjoon. But that day, Namjoon was not going to allow that. Jackson couldn’t continue like that. It was not healthy for him.

For that reason, Namjoon went to the living room to see him and caught him trying to get to his room again.

“Hey, Jackson,” he had a gentle smile on his lips, his dimples slightly showing.

“Hey,” was the only thing that he received in response. Jackson didn’t seem any better than the day before.

Namjoon crossed his arms on his chest as he saw him trying to get to the bedroom without adding anything else. He was not gonna allow that.

“I was wondering if you’d maybe like to have a drink with me?” it was a lame excuse to use, but sometimes the lamest things were the ones that worked the best with Jackson.

Namjoon saw Jackson stop walking in the middle of the room, but it took him a little to answer. He was really considering it.

“I don’t feel like it,” was the answer, and it kind of seemed final.

Namjoon didn’t give up, though.

“And how about we have some take out?” he added, checking the watch. It was a little late for regular dinner, but they were used to eating at ass o’clock in the morning. In college they used to order food at any given hour.

Jackson turned around, his expression more serious than ever.

“Can we order Chinese food?”

Namjoon nodded without hesitation, grabbing his phone to check one of the food delivery apps.

“You want Dim Sum?” He said it all carelessly, but he knew that it was what Jackson needed. Chinese food had been his comfort food for years, helping him cope with homesickness.

“And five treasure rice, please,” his voice sounded more like him now, less mechanical.

Namjoon decided that whatever he had been doing up until then could wait. Jackson needed him now and he was gonna be by his side just like he was there for him whenever he had a problem.

 

 

 

Jin had done everything he could to avoid getting home earlier, but he couldn’t waste more time any longer. He was exhausted, both physically and intellectually, and he needed a break.

When he put the key in the lock, he took a deep breath and turned it to the side, the door opening almost instantly.

Inside, he could hear chatter and some sizzling, probably because his roommates were preparing dinner.

Without a rush, he left his shoes and jacket by the entrance and went to the living room, hesitant. He feared the moment his eyes met Taehyung’s. Thankfully, he was not there at the moment. Not him, not Jimin and not Jungkook, even though he had seen that the three of them had their shoes in the entrance.

Should he rush to his room like he had been doing for the past days?

He was considering it when the door to the kitchen opened and Jimin appeared with a dish filled with food in between his hands. He was in the middle of saying something, but he stopped abruptly when he realized that Jin was there.

Taehyung and Jungkook appeared behind him, confused by the way Jimin had stopped so abruptly.

“Hyung, I was starting to get worried about you!” Jungkook complained with a pout, getting closer to his sibling. “Are you having dinner with us?”

Jin looked at the three of them and felt like an idiot. Why the hell had he been avoiding them? At that moment he felt dumb and childish.

“Can I?” He asked, a little shy.

Taehyung approached him without hesitation and hugged him hard.

“Of course you can! We made enough food for the four of us!” There was a smile on his lips and no trace of anger or deception.

Jin felt instantly relieved. He had been exaggerating. He should’ve spoken to them since the very first minute.

“Were you the one who cooked?” Jin was now trying to joke, just to loosen up a bit and make them see that he was okay.

“No! Jungkookie did it all,” he explained turned to the youngest so he could see him. Jungkook’s cheeks were bright red from the embarrassment of being acknowledged. “We didn’t know your baby brother was such a good cook!”

Jin smiled, both out of pride and relief.

“How couldn’t he when he had the best teacher someone could ask for?” His shameless pride made Jimin laugh and everyone seemed to loosen up a little.

He should’ve come home earlier.

 

 

 

Yoongi was in the monitoring room, checking on the screens that everything was under control. Friday nights were busier than any other day because lots of clients went out, but usually, there were no incidents.

He hoped that that night wasn’t gonna be an exception. He really didn’t feel like leaving the room until his sheet was over. There were too many things on his mind to focus on something as lame as his job.

With a deep sigh, he rested his back on the back of the chair, turning his head up to stare at the ceiling. There was a tiny spider web on the left corner and one of the lightbulbs was burnt out.

He looked at it for a minute too long, thinking about a thousand ways to avoid changing it, tired even though he hadn’t been there for long.

Yoongi turned to the counter and grabbed his phone, unlocking it without hesitation and going straight to the private chats. He scrolled down a little, forgetting about his colleagues and friends to check on Hoseok.

The moment he pressed on the writing square, a tiny smile appeared on his lips.

Min Yoongi: I just found out there’s a gigantic spider web in the monitoring room  
Min Yoongi: and I don’t know what to do with it  
Min Yoongi: leave it there?  
Min Yoongi: call someone to do the work for me?  
Min Yoongi: clean it myself?

He hesitated a little, thinking about how lame his words sounded. He really didn’t even know what had he decided to write to Hoseok about something so uninteresting, but he forgot about it when three dots appeared on the screen, telling him that he was already answering.

Jung Hoseok: ugh  
Jung Hoseok: I hate spiders  
Jung Hoseok: can you see the spider?  
Jung Hoseok: or has it already left?

Yoongi turned his head up again, analyzing the spider web like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen.

Min Yoongi: I cannot see it  
Jung Hoseok: is the ceiling high?  
Min Yoongi: I think I need a ladder to get there  
Jung Hoseok: then forget about it  
Jung Hoseok: I don’t want you to get hurt  
Yoongi’s lips curled up in a smile, his gums almost showing.  
Min Yoongi: Hey!  
Min Yoongi: I’m not clumsy! I can use a ladder and not fall from it  
Min Yoongi: I’ve done it before  
Jung Hoseok: but there’s no one around, right?  
Jung Hoseok: it may have not happened before, but it could happen today  
Jung Hoseok: call someone or leave it there  
Jung Hoseok: please

He put the phone on the counter again and covered his face with his hands, feeling overwhelmed. It was such a basic thing to say, and yet he felt like his heart was warming up too quickly.

Jung Hoseok: Yoongi?  
Jung Hoseok: please don’t tell me you’re doing it  
Jung Hoseok: you’re making me worried

Yoongi bit his lower lip, feeling a little anxious. Hoseok was really worried about him, even though it was something dumb and meaningless.

He grabbed the phone again and started typing again.

Min Yoongi: don’t worry  
Min Yoongi: I won’t  
Min Yoongi: I don’t wanna make you worried  
He checked again the last text he had just sent and felt the dumbest idiot in town. Since when was he sending silly messages to a dude he had just barely kissed a few days ago? The Min Yoongi he had been a few years ago would’ve been disgusted by this.

But current day Min Yoongi was really enjoying it, which was a completely new feeling for him.

Min Yoongi: I’ll leave it to my colleagues from the morning shift  
Jung Hoseok: good  
Jung Hoseok: what are you doing tomorrow?

He looked at the screen twice, surprised by the suddenness of the message. That was bold.

Min Yoongi: nothing  
Min Yoongi: I’m working all night long  
Min Yoongi: so I’ll probably be sleeping until noon  
Jung Hoseok: so you’re free tomorrow night?  
Min Yoongi: I guess, yes  
Jung Hoseok: you guess?  
Min Yoongi: I mean, unless you ask me out?  
Jung Hoseok: please say sike jsdgdjgs  
Jung Hoseok: okay  
Jung Hoseok: Min Yoongi  
Jung Hoseok: are you going out with me tomorrow night?  
Jung Hoseok: I promise not to drink as much as last time  
Jung Hoseok: please?

Yoongi had to stand up because he was feeling so nervous he couldn’t keep himself seated. Hoseok had just asked him out on a date. Just like that. No hesitation, no doubts, just straight up facts.

He took a deep breath, trying to relax himself a little before giving an answer.

Then, he proceeded to storm write and answer.

Min Yoongi: yesd  
Min Yoongi: I’ll goout wittou  
Min Yoongi: go out with you

 

 

 

The table is filled with empty take out containers. The TV is on, a random music video playing in the background. Namjoon and Jackson are sitting at the table, a full bottle of beer in hand and a few empty ones on the side.

Even though it had taken a bit, Namjoon had been able to make Jackson talk about his inner demons. Now that he was a little tipsy, it was even easier than before. Words were coming out of his mouth without hesitation, something that Namjoon was thankful for.

The best way to deal with Jackson was to have him talk about everything that was troubling him at any given time. Having him bottle up his emotions was, probably, the biggest mistake anyone could make.

“... ‘n’ he said that he had met the dude through an app and that they were meeting for the first time then,” Jackson took a sip from his bottle and swallowed the cuss word that he had been about to spill. “I just don’t believe it. I know that there’s something that he’s hiding from me, but he doesn’t want to tell me. I’m tired. I just want him to disappear.”

Namjoon playing with the paper on the beer bottle for a little too long, thoughtful. After a while, though, he turned up to him, his dimples showing even though he was not smiling.

“Didn’t you say you had agreed on not seeing each other for a while?” He repeated his words carefully, not wanting to piss him off.

“Yes. We have. We’ve officially broken up and I have him blocked in all the apps on my phone,” Jackson explained, very serious and convinced of what he was saying. “But I just can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve been with him for years, I don’t understand why would he do that to me now!”

Namjoon pressed his lips together and shook his head a little.

“Jackson,” he finally said, his lips almost touching the top of his own beer bottle. “I have already told you several times that you need to relax. I know that you love him. I know that he loves you, but you were getting too constraining. Both of you need some space. And it’s not a bad thing that he’s meeting other people.”

Jackson leaned back, looking a little pissed. He knew that Namjoon was right, but at the same time, he didn’t wanna acknowledge it. He preferred to spend the night thinking about the same topic rather than giving a solution to his worries.

“I’m serious, Jackson,” in his case, Namjoon leaned forward, resting the beer on the table and looking at Jackson a little defiant.

“I know that, okay?” Jackson finally acknowledged, although he didn’t say it very loud. “I just… I need more time to process everything.”

“I understand that,” Namjoon pointed out, sipping on his beer. “There’s nothing bad in wanting a little time, but you have to know that you cannot go back to the way you behaved before. You need to work on your issues, just like Mark needs to work on his too. It’s all teamwork.”

“But we were not a team!” Jackson complained, this time a little louder. “We were a couple, Namjoon!”

“You say it as if you didn’t know I’ve been through this relationship with you since the very beginning,” he seemed a little tired, but there was a tiny smile on his lips as he spoke. “But a couple works like a time. When one of you fails, both of you fail, and when one succeeds, both of you succeed. You have to be happy for his achievements just like he has to be for yours, and he needs to help you just like you help him. It’s something reciprocal. You’re both equal and deserve to be treated equally.”

Jackson sighed, covering his face with one hand. His eyes were now closed and all the fatigue was starting to show.

“I hate it when you get deep and philosophical about the simplest things, Joon-ah,” Jackson’s words were sincere, but Namjoon that they were not coming out the wrong way.

“You hate that or the fact that I’m telling you the truth?” His voice was not more teasing, something that made Jackson smile.

“Oh, c’mon, shut up! I didn’t sign up for high school teacher Namjoon,” he threw him a dirty napkin, hitting him in the arm. “I want my best friend back!”

Namjoon grabbed the napkin with one hand and crumbled it in between his fingers. Then, he raised his eyebrows teasingly and put the beer on the table.

“Are you sure about that, Jackson?” He was smiling so wide, Jackson could only fear for the worst.

“I…” was the only thing that he was able to say right before getting hit by that same napkin. “Okay. I’m _done_! This is war, Kim Namjoon. _War_!”

And so the war began.

 

 

 

Jungkook and Jin were sitting on the couch. Jin’s head was resting on the younger’s thighs, Jungkook’s hands carefully playing with his brother’s hair. Jimin and Taehyung were busy in the kitchen, doing the dishes and storing all the leftovers that could be used again.

Jin was silent, his eyes completely close, his expression peaceful and relaxed. It had been a tough day. He had been stressing too much about everything for the last couple days and he had been in need of a break since that failure of a date. He should’ve been able to acknowledge that talking to his roommates would’ve helped him more than anything, but he had been too clouded by his own prejudice to realize it.

Thankfully, today everything had worked out perfectly. The food had been great, his brother had been great, Jimin and Taehyung had been great. Hell, even the shitty show that was playing on the tv had good shows.

Maybe it was the upcoming week, the change in his routine that was about to come or the number of things he had been able to get rid of during dinner. Be it one thing or the other, he was now at peace.

“Hyung,” Jungkook almost whispered, his fingers getting tangled in Jin’s hair. “Are you feeling better?”

Jin carefully opened his eyes, blinking several times until his eyes adjusted to the light.  
“I am,” he as able to add, gentle.

“I was worried about you,” Jungkook adds, and the way his eyebrows furrow makes Jin realize how much of an idiot he has been.

“I’m sorry,” the elder sibling apologizes, looking to the side so he didn’t have to face Jungkook’s hurt expression.

“Do you need to talk about it?” His hand parted Jin’s fringer to show off his forehead and eyes better.

Jin shook his head lightly, not really feeling like talking about it. He needed to get his mind out of it, not make it the center of attention. It was not the time.

“Can you at least tell me if it was something serious?” He pressed his lips and bit on them lightly, anxious. “Did anything bad happen to you?”

Jin shook his head again, and Jungkook’s shoulders relaxed a bit at that. He was about to add something else when he heard a noise and in less than a couple sends he had Taehyung falling on top of him with Jimin’s giggles as background music.

“I’m so happy that hyungie is finally alive!” Taehyung wrapped his arms around Jin’s middle and squeezed his cheek to Jin’s chest. “I missed you so much, Seokjinnie-hyung!”

Jimin approached them carefully, sitting on the corner of the sofa so he could hug Taehyung’s back in some way.

“We missed you lots, hyungie. Don’t do that again,” he was talking so softly and so sweetly, his lips were curving in a pout.

Jungkook was bright red again, his eyes focused on the way Taehyung was hugging his brother. The other three, though, were too into their own thing to even realize it.

“I promise! I promise!” Jin finally added after a few minutes of uncertainty. “I won’t do it again but, please, Taehyung, for the love of God, don’t do that again! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

Taehyung laughed energetically as he separated himself from Jin.

“I’m just so happy! Hyungie is back!” Taehyung had been excited since the moment Jin had stepped a foot into the apartment and it only was getting louder as time went by. The bottle of Soju they had drunk over dinner probably had something to do with it.  
“Jungkookie cooked an amazing dinner! And Jiminie and Taeminnie are getting married!” He turned to Jimin, who was caught by surprise, and hugged him tightly.

Jin laughed at the comment, not realizing what Taehyung had just said until he thought about it carefully.

“Wait a minute,” he tried to settle down as he spoke. “Jimin and Taemin are _what_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end for today! I hope that you liked it!
> 
> This chapter is around 4k words and it took a very long time to write, but I think it was worth it. This is more of a transition chapter, but it just shows us how the boys live their daily lives.
> 
> I hope that you're streaming MOTS:7. I loved it! Louder than bombs is such a bop! It was one of the songs that inspired me to write this chapter.
> 
> Today, aside from being the day I post this, is also the day Lauv's new album came out, and I'm in love with it! Jungkookie and Jimin sing in _Who_ and wow? It's an amazing song! And it is, for sure, the song playing during Markson's breakup. I think it fits their dynamic pretty good. 
> 
> Have I ever told you that one of this reasons why this fic started was because of 'I'm so tired...'? 
> 
> On a different matter, I'm doing pretty good lately. I've been very busy over the last months, that's why I couldn't find the time to write. December, January and February were very stressful and I barely got to spend time at home, but this month is more chill and I hope to get back in track. 
> 
> Last time I told you I was gonna try writing for NaNo and I managed to write around 20k word. The story, though, isn't completed and I need more time to revise it. Let's hope I get time during the Summer so I can post it here!
> 
> You may have seen I started posting short scenes. It's part of a personal challenge I started in January in order to get myself back to writing again. It worked!
> 
> Oh, and I'm also participating in two Fests during the next months, so be ready for new fics to be posted soon!
> 
> To end on a good note, I'm leaving here a few songs I added to the OST of this fic: _[Mean it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_10qS7amjk)_ , _[dOra maar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMIDwQQRFoU)_ and _[Filter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNUnnb8F-Cw)_.
> 
> What do you think will happen next? How do you feel about Jackson and Namjoon? And do you approve of Jin's decision of avoiding his roommates after the date? I'd love to read what you have to say!
> 
> Have a great weekend!
> 
>  
> 
> [my twitter account](https://twitter.com/greylovestae)
> 
> P.S. I decided to refer to this fic using the hashtag #Finder on Twitter. Feel free to use it too!


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